Boeing lost a $49.5 million verdict for damages over a single deal in the Ethiopian Airines Beoing 737 MAX crash.
Samya Stumo was a 24-year old American public health worker killed on Ethiopian Airlines flight 302. Boeing has already admitted liability. This case was about compensation.
Ethiopian Airlines ET-AVJ taking off from Tel Aviv, credit: LLBG Spotter via Wikimedia Commons
Since the suit is against the aircraft manufacturer and not the airline, it’s not limited by the Montreal Convention. Boeing was headquarted in Chicago at the time of the event, and Illinois law allows wrongful death damages for “grief, sorrow, and mental suffering” of the family.
- Pre-death experience: $21 million The passenger’s final minutes of alarm, terror, loss of control, and awareness of impending death.
- Loss of companionship: $16.5 million The family’s loss of the passenger as a daughter and sibling, their relationship value; companionship; affection; future life together.
- Grief, sorrow, mental anguish — $12 million This is separate from loss of companionship in Illinois law. Her father testified the family felt they did not have “permission to be happy” after her death.
The case was just about how much Boeing should pay, not whether Boeing was at fault, so there wasn’t any doubt or hedging that might have reduced a jury’s tendency to a large order. And this is a large verdict for a single death. It’s the largest to date. Over 90% of victims have already settled, most confidentially.
This verdict affects the approximately 15 remaining unresolved cases from that flight, giving plaintiffs a new anchor above the previous highest verdict in the Shikha Garg case (the first civil verdict from November) where a Chicago jury awarded $28 million. Boeing agreed not to appeal that one, and with interest and other costs Boeing will pay ~ $38.5 million.
Boeing may seek a partial reduction in this case, especially around the $21 million for pre-death experience. In the Seventh Circuit it’s hard to wipe out more than that unless the verdict is not rationally connected to the evidence, is born of prejudice, or is “monstrously excessive.” Boeing already agreed to a $28 million award.
This case may settle prior to appeal, with Boeing using the option as leverage to get a deal for a reduced amount. They can argue that pain, suffering, and emotional distress damages require a physical injury before death, not just knowledge that someone is about to die. Since death would have occurred on impact there was no time for post-impact conscious pain.
The previous $28 million could help Boeing argue that $49.5 million is excessive. Effectively the jury punished Boeing despite no punitive damages being available in the case, using compensatory categories to punish corporate misconduct. Whether or not Boeing can prove this, it seems likely to be true given the amounts involved.
(Should be higher… honestly…)
@1990 the total cost to Boeing was billions..
This is what is wrong with the legal system.
The next law suit will be against us and we will lose every thing
You can not even have people visit you for fear they will sue you
This is ridiculous. God I hate our civil litigation system. Money doesn’t fix most things but congrats – your daughter died and you hit the lottery. Hope you are proud of yourselves
And @1990 since you hate our government and capitalism why don’t you do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor and just leave!
@Tomri – if you are inviting people over that would sue you then you have the wrong friends. Also there are levels of care for visitors or others in your house. The level of negligence would have to be pretty high for someone to successfully sue you and, worst case, your HO policy liability coverage would likely cover it
Friends, Boeing has enjoyed a ‘get out of jail free’ card, thanks to the current administration. Their original fines were supposed to be billions. A mere few millions to one victim is nothing by comparison. Why all the shilling for massive corporations who would let you and yours die for an extra buck?
Not sure what it’ll actually take (probably electing better representatives, enforcing existing tax law, properly funding the IRS, ensuring an actually independent, non-partisan judiciary, and getting undisclosed dark money out of politics, etc.), but workers and consumers deserve better.
If you’re calling basic human decency and fairness… ‘communism’ …then you’re being intellectually lazy, and just cheapening the meaning of words.
$49.5 million? The cost differential between hiring H1-Bs and American software engineers for the MCAS program?
The CEO and other’s should go to jail for murder. As always, they get away with it.
Good. They knew there were fundamental safety flaws and chose profits instead. We need a corporate death penalty, and executives should be in prison for decades. That’s the only way this sort of disregard for safety will be resolved.
Anybody who thinks this isn’t ridiculously high is an idiot.
That is so low: basically one year’s salary of a CEO for being murdered by a known defect that was actively buried.
People deserve more.
@Retired Gambler
You “..hate our civil litigation system.”?? Maybe you should leave the country.
Let’s face it, the award will be greatly reduced on appeal. Most people don’t even carry $1m in life insurance and that is what the award should be.
Greedy, scummy, ambulance-chasing trial lawyers are a prime reason why our healthcare system is in the toilet and why businesses pass these costs on to consumers. We need major tort reform to allow for reasonable compensation while barring these vultures from committing legal shakedowns.
@This comes to mind says – You strike me as one of those folks who’d pee yourself with excitement upon winning the $20k on Family Feud.
This was not “insanely high” given the circumstances. Boeing has a market cap of $180 billion. They cut corners, they knew they were cutting corners, and they recklessly robbed this family of their loved one for the rest of their lives. Every dime of this award is fully appropriate.
Let me ask a question: if a new medication saves someone’s life, ameliorates their fear of death and avoids the suffering of their family is a $49.5 million price justified?
There are areas where I think tort reform is out of control. And then there are areas where tort reform hasn’t gone far enough. This is definitely the latter. That award is insane and it should get reduced on appeal. But it’s also yet another argument for why Boeing never should have left Seattle in the first place…
@Ricport:
“Greedy, scummy, ambulance-chasing trial lawyers are a prime reason why our healthcare system is in the toilet and why businesses pass these costs on to consumers.”
Don’t you just love to watch people run off at the mouth, without the faintest idea of what they are saying. The major reason our healthcare system is in the toilet is the never-ending mergers and sale of hospitals to other hospitals. No matter what they say, the end result of these mergers is unfettered price hikes for medical services because there are fewer competitors.
Addressing 1990’s alter ego “Mike Hunt (say it aloud)”. I have been an expat contract pilot at several foreign (some might say Third World) airlines and I have flown most versions of the B737 from -100 to the 900. I in good conscience cannot assign 100% of the blame for the two crashes to Boeing. The Max 8 previous to the two crashes had and continues to have an excellent safety record in North America and Europe. This PI award is excessive and does nothing to further aviation safety.
Please sue the heck out of Boeing. Let this be a reminder that cutting corners on safety WILL have repercussions.
The hate Boeing first crowd is out in force. Personally I have written off ever flying Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines. I have flown a 737 Max though.
@Mike “You strike me as one of those folks who’d pee yourself with excitement upon winning the $20k on Family Feud.” For a guy who I often agree with, you are way off base here. If I were to wet myself each time I made $20K, I’d be changing pants very frequently given the swing in the DJIA and SP500 this year. And, given FF is filmed in CA, my net after taxes spread 5 ways? Chump change. And, in that spirit of game shows, Pointless is far more my cup of tea. [and, yes, folks, I know the difference between realized and unrealized gains and losses.]
Along a more serious line. My problem is not what BA had to pay. I’m really OK with that. My problem is how much the plaintiff and their lawyers got.