Wolk Law Firm has achieved yet another milestone in air crash litigation – this time an $89 million verdict against Avco Corporation for a defective carburetor that killed three people and severely injured a fourth. Delay damages from the defendant’s incessant unsuccessful appeals will raise the total to well over $100 million.
This verdict is doubly significant because it was decided under the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994, a federal statute that imposes a statute of repose on lawsuits against aircraft and their component manufacturers eighteen years after the product is sold.
This case was decided under one of the exceptions to that statute known as the “Knowing Misrepresentation” exception. That exception requires a claimant to plead and prove that a manufacturer knowingly misrepresented essential information to the FAA that relates to the safety of the product. This jury had no difficulty quickly making such a finding and then holding Lycoming Engines liable for defect, negligence and conduct justifying the imposition of punitive damages.
The compensatory damages totaled just shy of twenty-five million dollars and punitive damages of sixty-four million were then awarded in a separate jury deliberation after the defendant’s net worth of six hundred forty-five million was disclosed by stipulation. Lycoming had refused to supply any information about its net worth before the verdict but the Wolk Law Firm had a witness in readiness to confirm even a larger number had there been no stipulation.
