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.