Maguire v. Hughes Aircraft Corp., OH-6A

• Decision Date: 10 July 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-5970,OH-6A,89-5970
• Citation: 912 F.2d 67
• Parties: Prod.Liab.Rep.(CCH)P 12,559 Edward J. MAGUIRE, III, Appellant, v. HUGHES AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, Allison Gas Turbine Company Division of General Motors Corporation, MPB Corporation, John Doe, Inc. (a Fictitious Name for a Corporation), Richard Roe Associates (a Fictitious Name for an Entity Other Than a Corporation), and XYZ, Inc. or ABC Associates (Fictitious Names for the Manufacturer of the Engine and/or Power Plant Components of a Certain Hughes Aircraft CorporationArmy Scout Single Engine Helicopter), Jointly, Severally or in the Alternative. ALLISON GAS TURBINE DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant/Third Party Plaintiff, v. MPB CORPORATION, Third Party Defendant. . Submitted Under Third Circuit Rule 12(6)
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 67

912 F.2d 67

Prod.Liab.Rep.(CCH)P 12,559

Edward J. MAGUIRE, III, Appellant, v. HUGHES AIRCRAFT CORPORATION, Allison Gas Turbine Company

Division of General Motors Corporation, MPB Corporation,

John Doe, Inc. (a Fictitious Name for a Corporation),

Richard Roe Associates (a Fictitious Name for an Entity

Other Than a Corporation), and XYZ, Inc. or ABC Associates

(Fictitious Names for the Manufacturer of the Engine and/or

Power Plant Components of a Certain Hughes Aircraft

Corporation OH-6A Army Scout Single Engine Helicopter),

Jointly, Severally or in the Alternative.

ALLISON GAS TURBINE DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant/Third Party Plaintiff, v. MPB CORPORATION, Third Party Defendant.

No. 89-5970.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Submitted Under Third Circuit Rule 12(6)

July 10, 1990.

Decided Aug. 23, 1990.

Rehearing and Rehearing In Banc Denied Oct. 5, 1990.

Saul J. Steinberg, Steinberg and Ginsberg, Voorhees, N.J., for appellant.

Anthony J. Andolino, Gallo, Geffner, Fenster, Turitz & Harraka, Hackensack, N.J., for MPB Corp.

Raymond J. Tierney, Jr., Theodore S. Smith, Shanley & Fisher, P.C., Morristown, N.J., for Allison Gas Turbine Div. of General Motors Corp.

Before HUTCHINSON and NYGAARD, Circuit Judges, and VANARTSDALEN, District Judge ^*.

OPINION OF THE COURT

HUTCHINSON, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal, we must decide whether the district court correctly granted summary judgment in favor of a military contractor and its subcontractor under the government contractor defense that the Supreme Court reformulated in Boyle v. United Technologies Corp., 487 U.S. 500, 108 S.Ct. 2510, 101 L.Ed.2d 442 (1988). Finding no error, we will affirm.

I.

On the night of August 14, 1984, appellant Edward J. Maguire, III (Maguire), was forced to crash land the helicopter he was piloting while on duty for the New Jersey Army National Guard. Doctors who examined Maguire on the night of the crash and the next day concluded that the only injuries he suffered were minor bruises to his back. Two days following the crash, an Army flight surgeon certified that Maguire was able to return to active flight status. On August 18, 1984, four days after the crash landing, Maguire lost consciousness while driving his motorcycle and collided with a curb, sustaining serious injuries.

In August of 1987, Maguire brought suit in the Law Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Monmouth County, against Hughes Aircraft Corporation (Hughes), the manufacturer of the helicopter, and Allison Gas Turbine Division of General Motors Corporation (Allison), the manufacturer of the helicopter's engine. In his complaint, Maguire alleged that his motorcycle crash was a result of injuries he sustained in the helicopter crash and that Hughes and Allison were responsible for the injuries sustained in both incidents.

In November of 1987, Allison removed the suit to the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1441 (West 1973 & Supp.1990). The district court had subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1332 (West 1966 & Supp.1990) because Maguire did not share the same citizenship as either of the defendants and the dollar figure in controversy exceeded the then-applicable amount of $10,000, exclusive of interest and costs.

On October 5, 1988, Hughes, which had become the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company (McDonnell Douglas), moved for summary judgment. The district court granted the motion in favor of McDonnell Douglas on November 23, 1988. Maguire has not appealed from this order.

In February of 1989, based upon the report of one of Maguire's experts who concluded that a defectively designed engine ball bearing caused Maguire's helicopter to crash, Allison filed a third party complaint against MPB Corporation (MPB), the designer and manufacturer of the ball bearing. In April of 1989, Maguire moved to add MPB as a direct defendant. This motion was later granted, and Maguire filed an amended complaint.

In May of 1989, Allison filed a motion for summary judgment based upon the government contractor defense that the Supreme Court announced in Boyle. Shortly thereafter, MPB filed its own motion for summary judgment also based upon the same defense.

In a reported opinion, see Maguire v. Hughes Aircraft Corp., 725 F.Supp. 821 (D.N.J.1989), the district court held that the government contractor defense precluded Maguire's suit against Allison and MPB. As a result, on November 8, 1989, the district court entered an order granting summary judgment in favor of both defendants. Maguire filed a timely notice of appeal to this Court on December 5, 1989.

II.

We have appellate jurisdiction over the final order of the district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1291 (West Supp.1990). Since this appeal is taken from a grant of summary judgment, our scope of review is plenary. See International Union, UMWA v. Racho Trucking Co., 897 F.2d 1248, 1252 (3d Cir.1990). We apply the test provided in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c): (1) is there no genuine issue of material fact and (2) is one party entitled to judgment as a matter of law?

III.

Prior to the Supreme Court's opinion in Boyle, this Court looked to state law in diversity actions to decide whether it was appropriate to apply the government contractor defense in favor of a military contractor. For example, in Brown v. Caterpillar Tractor Co., 696 F.2d 246 (3d Cir.1982), we had to decide whether the government contractor defense barred an injured Army reservist from recovering for injuries that allegedly resulted from an improperly designed tractor-bulldozer that Caterpillar had built for the Army. As an initial matter, we held that state law, not federal law, governed the existence and application of the government contractor defense. See id. at 247-49.

Later, in a suit brought under the Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C.A.App. Secs. 761-768 (West 1975 & Supp.1990), where the district court exercised admiralty jurisdiction, we evaluated the government contractor defense as a matter of federal law. See Koutsoubos v. Boeing Vertol, 755 F.2d 352 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 821, 106 S.Ct. 72, 88 L.Ed.2d 59 (1985).

Shortly after our decision in Koutsoubos, however, we reaffirmed our holding in Brown that the existence and application of the government contractor defense would be determined under state law in diversity actions. See In re Air Crash Disaster at Mannheim Germany, 769 F.2d 115, 120 & n. 7 (3d Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1082, 106 S.Ct. 851, 88 L.Ed.2d 891 (1986). That case, like the appeal now before us, resulted from the crash of a military helicopter.

The Supreme Court's decision in Boyle requires us to reexamine our application of the government contractor defense. In Boyle, the Supreme Court held that before resort is made to state law in a diversity case that involves the application of the government contractor defense to a military contractor, it is necessary to determine whether state tort law is in significant conflict with the federal interests associated with federal procurement contracts. See 487 U.S. at 507-09, 108 S.Ct. at 2515-16. If such a significant conflict is found to exist, state tort law is pre-empted and the government contractor defense as defined by federal law will apply. See id. at 512, 108 S.Ct. at 2518.

The Supreme Court in Boyle announced a three-pronged approach for identifying when displacement of state tort law is proper in a suit against a military contractor:

Liability for design defects in military equipment cannot be imposed, pursuant to state law, when (1) the United States approved reasonably precise specifications; (2) the equipment conformed to those specifications; and (3) the supplier warned the United States about the dangers in the use of the equipment that were known to the supplier but not to the United States.

Id.

The Supreme Court in large measure based the identification of a government contractor defense at federal common law upon the contours of the discretionary function exception to liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 2680(a) (West 1965). See 487 U.S. at 511, 108 S.Ct. at 2517. It explained that the first two prongs "assure that the suit is within the area where the policy of the 'discretionary function' would be frustrated." Id. at 512, 108 S.Ct. at 2518. The Supreme Court adopted the third and final prong "lest our effort to protect discretionary functions perversely impede them by cutting off information highly relevant to the discretionary decision." Id. at 512-13, 108 S.Ct. at 2518.

IV.

The district court examined all three prongs of the government contractor defense as set forth in Boyle and found that both Allison and MPB were entitled to summary judgment. On appeal, Maguire maintains that the district court erred in granting summary judgment because genuine issues of material fact remain in dispute concerning the first and third prongs of the Boyle test. ¹

A.

Maguire's first contention is that genuine issues of material fact remain concerning the level of government participation in connection with the alleged defect that caused Maguire's helicopter to crash. In order to satisfy the first prong of the Boyle test on a motion for summary judgment, Allison and MPB had to show that there existed no genuine issue of material fact concerning their assertion that the United States approved reasonably precise specifications.

We have carefully canvassed the record in a light most favorable to Maguire, the non-moving party, and we conclude that the district court was correct in holding that Allison and MPB met the test for summary judgment on the first prong of the Boyle test.

The record on summary judgment shows that the helicopter Maguire piloted on the night of his crash was powered by a model T63 engine that Allison manufactured. The origin of the engine can be traced to the...