In re Air Crash Disaster Near Chicago, Etc.

• Court: Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation
• Writing for the Court: STANLEY A. WEIGEL, of the Panel
• Citation: In re Air Crash Disaster Near Chicago, Etc., 476 F.Supp. 445 (J.P.M.L. 1979)
• Decision Date: 13 August 1979
• Docket Number: No. 391.,391.
• Parties: In re AIR CRASH DISASTER NEAR CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ON MAY 25, 1979.

476 F. Supp. 445

In re AIR CRASH DISASTER NEAR CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ON MAY 25, 1979.

No. 391.

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

August 13, 1979.

Before MURRAY I. GURFEIN, Chairman, and EDWIN A. ROBSON, STANLEY A. WEIGEL, ANDREW A. CAFFREY, ROY W. HARPER and CHARLES R. WEINER, Judges of the Panel.

OPINION AND ORDER

STANLEY A. WEIGEL, Judge of the Panel.

I. BACKGROUND

On May 25, 1979, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 jet aircraft being operated by American Airlines (American) crashed shortly after take-off from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. The 258 passengers and thirteen crew members aboard the DC-10,¹ and two persons on the ground, died in the crash. In addition, several persons on the ground were injured and substantial property damage occurred at the crash site.

At the time of the hearing, sixteen actions arising from the disaster were before us on motions to transfer them to a single district pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407 for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings.² Twelve of these actions are pending in the Northern District of Illinois; three in the Central District of California; and one in the Southern District of New York. American and McDonnell Douglas are defendants in all the actions. General Electric Company, manufacturer of the engines, is a defendant in most. Rockford Aerospace Products, Inc., the alleged manufacturer of certain bolts installed on the engine mountings, is named as a defendant in one. Plaintiffs in the actions allege that the conduct of the defendants in the design, manufacture, maintenance and/or operation of the American DC-10 caused the crash. Plaintiffs rely, inter alia, on theories of negligence and strict liability.

All parties favor transfer of the actions to a single district for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. The sole dispute among them is as to which district that should be. Three different districts have been suggested — the Northern District of Illinois, by the plaintiffs there and by all four defendants; the Central District of California, by the plaintiffs there; and the Southern District of New York, by the plaintiff there.

II. HOLDING

Acting under the governing statute (28 U.S.C. § 1407), we find that these actions involve common questions of fact and determine that their transfer to the Northern District of Illinois for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings will best serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and best promote the just and efficient conduct of all the actions before us.

III. THE NEED FOR CENTRALIZED PRETRIAL PROCEEDINGS

The cases now before us present a prime example of the need which gave rise to enactment of Section 1407. See, e. g., 114 Cong.Rec. 4924, 4925, 4926 (1968). If these actions were not transferred as authorized by that statute, there inevitably would be repetitious depositions of scores of witnesses, repetitious examinations of thousands of documents, and yet other myriad duplications of pretrial proceedings. Much time and effort of numerous parties, witnesses, attorneys and judges would be needlessly wasted. That waste would be exceptionally serious in these cases because of the unusually complex issues they involve. Centralization for pretrial proceedings will also serve the salutary purposes of forestalling conflicts in pretrial rulings and of otherwise streamlining pretrial procedure. See, e. g., In re Air Crash Disaster at Huntington, West Virginia, on November 14, 1970, 342 F.Supp. 1400, 1402 (Jud.Pan.Mult. Lit.1972).

We are sensitive to the fact that many of the parties in the actions before us have suffered the grievous loss of loved ones. We appreciate that centralization of these actions in any one district may cause some parties some inconvenience occasioned by the sheer mechanics of transfer. See In re "East of the Rockies" Concrete Pipe Antitrust Cases, 302 F.Supp. 244, 254-55 (Jud. Pan.Mult.Lit.1969) (concurring opinion). Overall, however, our experience with some 400 groups of multidistrict litigation over the past eleven years satisfies us that all parties in the litigation at bar will benefit from significant savings of time, effort and expense as a result of pretrial centralization.

Because transfer is solely for pretrial purposes, there is no requirement that parties or witnesses travel to the transferee district. See, e. g., Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(c)(2), 45(d)(2). Furthermore, since all plaintiffs in these cases have practically identical interests on issues of liability, sensible use of liaison counsel, lead counsel and steering committees can do more than trim the pretrial process. By providing an efficient and economical means of representing the interests of all parties, it can also eliminate the need for most counsel to travel to the transferee district. See Manual for Complex Litigation, Parts I and II, §§ 1.90-1.93 (rev. ed. 1977 and cum. supp. 1978). Concentrating counsel participation will not preclude all parties and their attorneys from keeping abreast of all developments in the litigation. See also id. at Parts I and II, § 2.31.

IV. FACTORS DETERMINING CHOICE OF TRANSFEREE DISTRICT

The plaintiffs favoring the Central District of California as the transferee forum contend that the liability phase of this litigation will focus upon the design of the DC-10. In urging transfer to that district, they point out that the aircraft was designed, manufactured and assembled by McDonnell Douglas at its Long Beach, California facility; that the aircraft was certified as airworthy by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operating out of the FAA's Western Regional Office in Los Angeles; that McDonnell Douglas plans to conduct tests in the Los Angeles area on the type of aircraft involved in the crash; that recommended maintenance procedures for the DC-10 were developed by McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach; that McDonnell Douglas trained American's personnel in maintenance procedures and techniques in Los Angeles; that approximately one-half of the victims lived in the southern California area (almost twice as many as those who lived in the Chicago area) and that it is therefore to be expected that more suits will be filed in the Central District of California than anywhere else; that California law will likely govern the actions filed there, and a California court is better able than one in Illinois to apply California law. The California plaintiffs also contend that if the actions are transferred to Illinois for pretrial, the transferee court might keep them there for trial based upon the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). In that case, they declare, they would be prejudiced because they seek punitive damages and would be compelled to present the testimony of the allegedly culpable McDonnell Douglas officers and employees to a jury by the use of depositions, rather than by live testimony pursuant to trial subpoena.³

The plaintiff in the Southern District of New York action before the Panel asserts that the Panel should centralize this litigation in that district because (1) New York is conveniently located to Washington, D. C., where the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board maintain their headquarters, thus facilitating discovery of the findings of those two bodies; (2) American has its principal place of business in New York; (3) two insurance carriers involved in this litigation maintain offices there; and (4) New York is conveniently located for the attorneys in this litigation.

The plaintiffs in the Northern District of Illinois point out that the Panel has usually centralized domestic air disaster litigation in the district where the crash occurred. See, e. g., In re Air Crash Disaster at Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, on August 7, 1975, 447 F.Supp. 1071 (Jud.Pan.Mult.Lit.1978); In re Air Crash Disaster at John F. Kennedy International Airport on June 24, 1975, 407 F.Supp. 244 (Jud.Pan.Mult.Lit.1976). They also point out that most of the reasons which have customarily underlain our "situs of the crash" rule are present here. For example, many of the eyewitnesses to the accident, including the air traffic controllers, are located in the Chicago area. So are numerous relevant photographs, video tapes and films. The FAA office located near Chicago was responsible for approving the engine which allegedly fell from the DC-10 during this disaster.

We have evaluated and weighed all the relevant factors, and conclude that the Northern District of Illinois is the best for the conduct of coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings in this litigation. In addition to the reasons already noted which favor the Northern District of Illinois as the transferee district, many of the considerations urged in support of transfer to the Central District of California as well as many of those urged in support of the Southern District of New York combine to make the Northern District of Illinois the best forum for pretrial proceedings. Transfer either to New York or southern California would require transcontinental travel for those attorneys and parties located on one side of the continent who need or desire to participate in pretrial proceedings conducted at the other. Moreover, it is clear on the facts before us that pretrial proceedings concerning liability issues will focus on at least six different geographic areas: California; New York; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Oklahoma (the location of American's primary maintenance facility); and Ohio (where the engine was manufactured). Thus, the Northern District of Illinois, with its central location and concomitant ease of accessibility, stands out as the most appropriate transferee forum.⁴ See In re Government Auto Fleet Sales Antitrust Litigation, 328 F.Supp. 218, 220 (Jud.Pan.Mult. Lit.1971); In re Library Editions of Children's Books, 297 F.Supp. 385, 387 (Jud.Pan. Mult.Lit.1968).

The fact that the transferee court may have occasion to apply non-Illinois...