Colgan Air, Inc. v. Raytheon Aircraft Co.
| Decision Date | 07 December 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 1:05CV213.,1:05CV213. |
| Citation | 404 F.Supp.2d 893 |
| Parties | COLGAN AIR, INC. Plaintiff, v. RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia |
Morgan Warren Campbell, Dombroff & Gilmore PC, McLean, VA, for Plaintiff.
Holly Parkhurst Essing, Robert Taggart Hall, Hall & Sickel PC, Reston, VA, for Defendant.
This negligence and breach of warranty action arises out of the crash of a Beech 1900D aircraft, FAA Registration No. N240CJ ("Aircraft N240CJ"), off the Massachusetts coast on August 26, 2003. It is brought by Colgan Air, Inc. ("Colgan"), the air carrier that leased the aircraft, against Raytheon Aircraft Company ("Raytheon"), the manufacturer of the aircraft and the issuer of the aircraft's maintenance manual. Although not named, the real plaintiff in interest is AIG, the entity that, pursuant to the lease arrangement, issued a policy insuring against the loss of the aircraft and then, when the aircraft crashed, paid the proceeds of the policy to the lessee. AIG thereby became subrogated to any rights Colgan might have with respect to the loss of the aircraft.
Raytheon has moved for summary judgment, and Colgan has moved for partial summary judgment. The essential dispositive questions presented are:
(1) whether the waiver of right contained in the Used Airliner Warranty provided by Raytheon to Colgan pursuant to the lease agreement is effective to bar claims for loss of the aircraft; and
(2) if so, whether the waiver of rights also precludes Colgan's claims based on a defective maintenance manual on the ground that the maintenance manual is an integral part of the aircraft.
The plaintiff, Colgan, is a regional air carrier incorporated and headquartered in Virginia. It seeks to recover damages allegedly sustained as a result of the crash of an aircraft it leased from Raytheon Aircraft Credit Corporation ("RACC"), and RACC's wholly owned subsidiary Raytheon Airline Aviation Services LLC ("RAAS"). The aircraft was manufactured by the defendant, Raytheon, a Kansas corporation, which also issued the maintenance manuals for the aircraft. RACC is sister company of Raytheon as both are wholly owned subsidiaries of Raytheon Holdings, Inc. RAAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of RACC.
On August 25 and August 26, 2003, Colgan's maintenance employees replaced Aircraft N240CJ's forward elevator trim tab cable after the existing cable had come off of the drum and kinked as a result of earlier maintenance performed on the Aircraft. While the parties dispute the cause, it is undisputed that Colgan's maintenance personnel, using the aircraft maintenance manual then in effect, incorrectly installed the trim tab cable such that the trim tabs operated in reverse. As a result, when cockpit controls were used to set the trim tabs at a nose up position, the trim tabs actually moved to a nose down position. This dangerous condition was not discovered by Colgan's maintenance crew during their post-maintenance operational checks, nor was it discovered by Colgan's pilots in their checks before attempting their ill-fated flight. Thus, when the pilots attempted take-off, the reversal of the trim tabs caused the aircraft to crash off the coast of Hyannis, Massachusetts, killing both of the pilots and destroying the aircraft.
Colgan assigns the blame for the accident to an allegedly defective maintenance manual provided to it by Raytheon. The manual at issue, Revision 9 of the Raytheon Electronic Publications Program Maintenance Library for the Beech 1900 Aircraft ("REPS Manual"), was provided in electronic format and received by Colgan on or about May 23, 2003.2 The REPS Manual contained a section within Chapter 27 entitled "Flight Controls-Description and Operation" which included the following language Proper winding of the cables on the pedestal and actuator drums, is shown in ... the Elevator Tab Control Cable Winding illustration in Chapter 27-30-04 for elevator tabs, ensures against crossing the cables and causing improper trim tab movement. (underline in original)
Clicking on the underlined portion of the language above led to Figure 201 of Chapter 27-30-04, which depicted the forward trim cable drum backwards, or 180 degrees from the installed position, and shows the open, keyed side of the drum, instead of the flat side. Colgan claims that its maintenance crew followed the REPS Manual's directions as depicted in Figure 201 resulting in the reversal of the action of the elevator manual trim system.
Colgan also asserts that the table of contents for Chapter 27 failed to contain a reference or hyperlink to an operational check that would have revealed the problem with the trim tabs.3 Because Colgan's maintenance personnel did not locate or find the appropriate operational check, which was included in both the paper and REPS versions of the manual, they proceeded to devise their own check. Their check was not sufficient to disclose the problem with Aircraft N240CJ's elevator trim system. Colgan contends that these two alleged defects with the REPS Manual — the reverse drawing and the missing hyperlink — proximately caused the crash.4 It is worth noting that these alleged defects appeared in all relevant versions of the manual, both electronic and paper.
Raytheon disputes that these alleged defects in the manual caused the crash, and argues that the blame for the reversed trim tab controls rests squarely on the shoulders of Colgan's maintenance and flight crews. The error in Figure 201, Raytheon claims, should have been immediately apparent to Colgan's maintenance crew as the drum depicted in Figure 201 is patently backwards from the actual drum, which shows the flat side, and cannot be reversed in the aircraft itself. In addition, Raytheon contends that Colgan's maintenance crew committed independent error in crossing the cables through the back of the aircraft, without which the error in the manual would have been obvious. Further, Raytheon argues that the failure of Colgan's mechanics to perform an adequate operational check cannot reasonably be ascribed to the missing hyperlink, since Colgan's mechanics knew that they needed to perform the operational check, and indeed had done so in the past. Raytheon also argues that the missing hyperlink is irrelevant because the section of the manual describing the correct operational check could have been located without the hyperlink. Moreover, Raytheon argues that the pilots were also negligent in not discovering the defective trim tabs in their preflight check.
In resolving Raytheon's motion for summary judgment, it is unnecessary to reach and decide the parties' dispute about the cause of the accident. This is so because Raytheon's summary judgment motion contends that the terms of the warranty and waiver of rights provided pursuant to the lease of Aircraft N240CJ releases any claims Colgan may have against Raytheon for loss of the aircraft. Accordingly, the analysis herein proceeds on the premise that the alleged defects in the maintenance manual existed and caused the crash. The facts material to the disposition of Raytheon's summary judgment motion are set forth in greater detail in the following enumerated paragraphs.
1. Aircraft N240CJ was leased to Colgan pursuant to a definitive agreement ("Definitive Agreement") signed by Colgan, RACC, and RAAS on August 1, 2002.
2. Article 3 of the Definitive Agreement provided for the lease of certain identified used Beechcraft 1900D Airliner aircraft, and requires that certain support items were "to be provided to Colgan as part of this transaction." Accordingly, RAAS was required to deliver one copy of the following support items: a Pilot's Operating Handbook, an FAA Approved Aircraft Flight Manual, a Parts Catalog, an Electrical Wiring Diagram Manual, a Radio and Electronic Wiring Diagram, a Structural Repair Manual, a Structural Inspection Manual, a Component Maintenance Manual, and most importantly for present purposes, a Maintenance Manual. As discussed more fully below, Colgan disputes ever having received a maintenance manual in relation to the Definitive Agreement.
3. Article 10.16 of the Definitive Agreement contained a clause entitled "Entire Agreement" which provided:
This Agreement contains the entire agreement of the parties and supercedes any and all prior agreements between the parties, written or oral, with respect to the transactions hereby contemplated, and specifically supercedes the comprehensive lease proposal given by RACC and RAAS to Colgan, dated March 15, 2002. There are no verbal understandings, agreements, representations or warranties between the parties which are not expressly herein set forth. This Agreement may not be changed or terminated orally but may only be changed by an agreement in writing signed by the party or parties against whom enforcement of any waiver, change, modification, extension, discharge or termination is sought.
4. In addition to the lease of certain identified aircraft, Article 4.1 of the Definitive Agreement grants to Colgan the option to lease up to fifteen additional used Beechcraft 1900D aircraft. These aircraft would not be specifically identified until Colgan exercised this option.
5. Thereafter, Colgan did exercise this option and the aircraft here in issue — Aircraft N240CJ — was the 8th or 9th option aircraft.
6. With certain exceptions not at issue in this case, these aircraft were to be leased pursuant to the terms and conditions of a form lease attached to the Definitive Agreement, and a lease agreement ("Lease Agreement") identical to this form was in fact signed by Colgan and RACC on January 3, 2003 for Aircraft N240CJ.
7. The Lease Agreement provided that Colgan would lease Beechcraft 1900D Airliner aircraft from RACC in accordance with the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Colgan Air, Inc. v. Raytheon Aircraft Co.
...by Raytheon, caused the fatal crash. In a published decision awarding summary judgment for Raytheon, Colgan Air, Inc. v. Raytheon Aircraft Co., 404 F.Supp.2d 893 (E.D.Va.2005), the district court held that the Used Airliner Airplane Warranty, executed by Colgan as part of its lease of the A......
-
Colgan Air, Inc. v. Raytheon Aircraft Co.
...subsequently vacated summary judgment in part and remanded the matter for a jury trial in October 2007. See Colgan Air, Inc. v. Raytheon Aircraft Co., 404 F.Supp.2d 893 (E.D.Va.2005), vacated in part and remanded, 507 F.3d 270 (4th 2. Raytheon issued both paper maintenance manuals and maint......