Ewers v. Thunderbird Aviation, Inc.
| Decision Date | 07 September 1979 |
| Docket Number | 49642 and 49812.,No. 49615,49615 |
| Citation | 289 NW 2d 94 |
| Parties | R. Lora EWERS, trustee for the Heirs of Patrick Keith Ewers, Respondent, v. THUNDERBIRD AVIATION, INC., et al., Appellants. Stan DAVIES, Trustee, et al., Respondents, v. Brandt L. DAHLBERG, et al., Appellants. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Arthur, Chapman & Michaelson and Robert W. Kettering, Jr., Minneapolis, Meagher, Geer, Markham, Anderson, Adamson, Flaskamp & Brennan and W. D. Flaskamp, Minnneapolis, for Thunderbird Aviation, Inc., et al.
Doherty, Rumble & Butler, Boyd H. Ratchye and Stephen I. Halper, St. Paul, for Dahlberg, et al.; Conklin, Leahy & Eisenberg, Chicago, Ill., of counsel.
Fred Allen and Bradley J. Behr, Minneapolis, for Ewers.
Hvass, Weisman & King and Charles T. Hvass, Minneapolis, for Davies, et al.
Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.
These cases involve the issue of whether Minnesota law imposes vicarious liability on an owner of a Minnesota-based airplane for the negligence of a renter-pilot, when the negligent acts and impact of the airplane occurred in another state. The appeals are taken from the orders of two Hennepin County District Court judges which denied defendants' motions for summary judgment. Certain questions presented by the motions were certified by the respective trial judges as important and doubtful and thus those issues are properly before this court. See, Rule 103.03(i), Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure. We affirm.
On October 18, 1974, defendant John R. Hendrickson, Sr., purchased an aircraft from defendant Thunderbird Aviation, Inc. (Thunderbird). On that same day, Hendrickson leased the airplane to Thunderbird. This sale and lease-back arrangement was originally suggested by defendant Albert J. Grazzini, president and sole stockholder of Thunderbird, who is also Hendrickson's accountant. The lease agreement provided that the aircraft would be permanently based at Flying Cloud airport in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, to be used in Thunderbird's "flight service business."
On April 30, 1977, Thunderbird leased the aircraft to Fred Graf. On the same day the plane, with Graf piloting and Keith Ewers, plaintiff's husband, as passenger, departed Eden Prairie for Denver, Colorado. Upon approach to the airport in Denver, the aircraft crashed, killing both Graf and plaintiff's husband. Both Graf and passenger Ewers were Minnesota residents.
Thereafter, plaintiff, acting as trustee for the heirs of Patrick Ewers, commenced this action against defendants Thunderbird, Hendrickson, and Grazzini. Defendants moved for dismissal or summary judgment in their favor on various grounds, including that the terms of Minn.St. 360.0216 do not impose vicarious liability on defendants for the negligent acts of the pilot in the instant case. On November 2, 1978, the district court, with one exception not material here, denied defendants' motion. The trial judge subsequently certified two of the issues presented by the motion as important and doubtful.
Davies and Jordan v. Dahlberg and Mayer Aviation, Inc.
For purposes of defendants' motion for summary judgment, the pertinent facts have been stipulated to by the parties. The airplane accident in question occurred on April 10, 1977. At that time defendant Brandt Dalhberg was the owner of the aircraft, and had leased the plane to defendant Mayer Aviation, Inc. (Mayer). The lease agreement authorized Mayer, in turn, to lease the aircraft to others. The airplane was maintained and hangared at Lake Elmo Airport in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.
On the date of the accident Mayer leased the aircraft to Glenn G. Bauer, a Minnesota resident. At about 4:15 p. m. that day, Bauer, as pilot, accompanied by Patrick Jordan and Julie Koponen, both Minnesota residents, departed Lake Elmo in the aircraft on a pleasure flight to Durand, Wisconsin, and return. At approximately 4:40 p. m. the plane crashed and burned in a stubble field approximately 6 miles south of Hudson, Wisconsin. The pilot and the two passengers were killed in the accident.
Prior to the crash, witnesses observed the aircraft executing a series of nose-high attitudes, accompanied by a corresponding reduction in power, followed by a pitchover to a nose-low attitude with application of power. These maneuvers, the alleged negligent acts, occurred entirely within the physical boundaries of the state of Wisconsin.
The trustees for the heirs of the passengers brought this wrongful death action against Dahlberg and Mayer. The defendants subsequently moved for summary judgment in their favor, claiming that under Minnesota law neither could be held vicariously liable for the negligence of the pilot. On January 8, 1979, the district court denied the motion, but certified the question presented as important and doubtful.
These cases present the following issues:
(1) Does Minn.St. 360.0216 impose vicarious liability on a aircraft owner when the pilot's negligent acts and impact of the aircraft occurred in another state?
(2) Are lessees/sublessors, such as defendants Thunderbird and Mayer, "owners" within the meaning of Minn.St. 360.0216?
1. In Haskin v. Northeast Airways, Inc., 266 Minn. 210, 123 N.W.2d 81 (1963), this court declared that, absent legislation providing otherwise, the owner of an airplane cannot be held vicariously liable for the injuries of a passenger caused by the negligence of a pilot unless an agency-in-fact relationship is established.1 At the time of the Haskin decision the legislature had not modified this common-law rule and, accordingly, the Haskin court did not allow an injured passenger to maintain a vicarious liability claim against an aircraft owner for the negligence of a non-agent pilot. The legislative policy regarding vicarious liability of aircraft owners remained unchanged until the enactment of L.1976, c. 241. This legislation, which included provisions relating to compulsory insurance for aircraft, stated in § 2, now codified as Minn.St. 360.0216, as follows:
(Emphasis added.)
Plaintiffs claim that the above statute creates an agency relationship between the negligent pilots and defendants,2 thus authorizing the imposition of vicarious liability. Defendants counter by arguing that § 360.0216 does not apply to out-of-state accidents and, consequently, the common law rule of non-liability as set out in Haskin, supra, is controlling. After careful consideration of the question, we agree with plaintiffs that under the facts of the instant cases § 360.0216 operates to impose vicarious liability on airplane owners, even though the pilots' negligent acts and resulting crashes occurred outside this state.
In resolving this issue,3 the threshold inquiry is whether the legislation is ambiguous, thus allowing statutory construction. E. g., Minn.St. 645.16; McCarty v. Village of Nashwauk, 286 Minn. 240, 175 N.W.2d 144 (1970). We believe that, contrary to defendants' assertion, the wording of § 360.0216 is unclear. It provides in pertinent part that "when an aircraft is operated within the airspace above this state * * * the operator shall in case of accident be deemed the agent of the owner * * *" (emphasis added). The statute refers to the operation of the aircraft within this state, but sets no similar geographical restriction upon the phrase "in case of accident." The absence of a territorial limitation on the place in which the accident occurs raises an ambiguity in the statutory phraseology and, accordingly, construction of § 360.0216 is proper.
When construing a statute, our task is to search for, and give effect to, the legislative intent. E. g., Minn.St. 645.16; Peterson v. Haule, 304 Minn. 160, 230 N.W.2d 51 (1975). The obvious purpose of § 360.0216 and similar statutes is to make an aircraft owner accountable for the negligence of pilots where no such liability would otherwise exist. In other words, by imposing liability on an owner, a presumed financially responsible individual, there will be a greater certainty of recovery for those injured by the negligent operation of an airplane. To this end, the statute must be liberally construed and any doubts be resolved in favor of the injured party. See, e. g., Shuck v. Means, 302 Minn. 93, 226 N.W.2d 285 (1974) ().
It is consistent with the policy manifested by § 360.0216 to allow plaintiffs in the instant cases to pursue their claims against the aircraft owners. This result will effectuate the legislative objective of providing financial relief to persons injured as a result of pilot negligence.
The fact that the negligent act and impact occurred outside this state does not render this statutory purpose inapplicable. Rather, it is most reasonable to construe § 360.0216 as requiring that the aircraft be operated in this state4 at some point during its flight.5 A contrary result, i. e., adoption of defendants' theory that the phrase "aircraft operated within * * * this state" limits an owner's vicarious liability to accidents occurring in Minnesota, would lead to unreasonable and absurd results, which, of course, we presume the legislature did not intend. E. g., Minn.St. 645.17(1); State v. Fleming, 302 Minn. 61, 233 N.W.2d 397 (1974). A review of the physical configuration of the state of Minnesota discloses that many plane trips, even though intrastate in place of departure and destination, will fly over states other than Minnesota. For example, a flight from the...
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