Seale v. Pearson
| Decision Date | 16 April 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 2971308.,2971308. |
| Citation | 736 So.2d 1108 |
| Parties | Leon C. SEALE, Jr., individually and d/b/a Moundville Airport v. C. Dudley PEARSON. |
| Court | Alabama Court of Civil Appeals |
Thomas W. Powe, Jr., and Borden M. Ray, Jr., of Ray, Oliver & Ward, L.L.C., Tuscaloosa, for appellant.
Charles E. Pearson of Pearson & Smithart, P.C., Tuscaloosa, for appellee.
On Application for Rehearing
This court's no-opinion order of January 29, 1999, affirming the judgment of the trial court, is withdrawn, and this opinion is substituted therefor.
C. Dudley Pearson sued Hays Aviation, Inc., and Leon C. Seale, Jr., individually and doing business as Moundville Airport, seeking damages and injunctive relief. In his complaint, Pearson alleged claims of trespass, nuisance, negligence, wantonness, and conspiracy. All the claims related to his allegations that certain airplanes were taking off from the Moundville Airport and then flying low over his home.
Pearson and Hays Aviation, which operated an airplane used for skydiving, entered into a settlement agreement and Pearson dismissed Hays from the action. A trial was held as to Seale's liability. The trial court directed a verdict in favor of Seale on all claims except the nuisance claim. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Pearson on the nuisance claim, awarding him $23,000 in compensatory damages and $30,000 in punitive damages. The jury noted that it intended for $1,000 of its punitive award to be covered by Pearson's settlement with Hays, so that Seale would be liable for a total of $52,000. The trial court entered a judgment on the jury verdict. Seale appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, which deflected the case to this court pursuant to § 12-2-7(6), Ala.Code 1975.
The evidence at trial tended to show the following. In 1989 Pearson bought land near Seale's private airstrip. In 1991, Seale applied to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Alabama Department of Aeronautics to operate a public airport at Moundville; as part of his application, Seale proposed to lengthen the runway at the airstrip by about 760 feet. The agencies approved his application and granted him a license to operate a public airport.
In 1996, Seale lengthened the runway by more than 1,000 feet, bringing the total length of the runway to 4,000 feet. The end of the runway is now about one-half mile from Pearson's house. Seale also relocated the runway so that it was 100 feet to the side of where it had been. Seale entered into an agreement with Hays Aviation allowing Hays Aviation to operate a skydiving airplane out of the Moundville Airport, and by the early summer of 1996 air traffic in and out of the airport had increased substantially.
The early summer of 1996 was also when Pearson said the low overflights first began over his home. He and other witnesses testified that the planes making the low overflights were a red and white Cessna airplane, a blue and white Cessna airplane, and a black skydiving airplane belonging to Hays. Several witnesses testified that the two Cessnas belonged to Seale. They reported seeing both of them in Seale's hangar. Seale acknowledged having a red and white Cessna and a blue and white Cessna, but, he said, such planes, with similar markings, were common. His stance throughout the case was essentially that Pearson could not prove that he was the pilot making the low overflights in the Cessnas.
Ross Sasser, an aviation expert and former FAA and National Transportation Safety Board investigator, testified that the planes taking off or landing at the Moundville Airport must have climbed to or descended to a minimum altitude of 500 feet when they are over Pearson's home. Witnesses testified that, based on the height of trees in the area, they estimated that the planes were flying at 50 to 150 feet over the Pearson home.
Pearson testified that he complained to Seale about the low overflights, explaining that his wife was seriously ill with a brain tumor. He said that Seale was sympathetic and that the low flights stopped for about two weeks. However, the flights began again and continued throughout the summer. Pearson said he complained to Seale twice more about the flights. Finally, Pearson asked his son, a lawyer, to write Seale a letter demanding an end to the low overflights.
The letter was written on September 3, 1996. On September 7 and 8, 1996, Seale made takeoffs and landings from about 8 a.m. until dusk, Pearson said, and the planes flew low over his house. Pearson again sent Seale a letter complaining about the low overflights. Seale responded, saying that he was trying to determine when a pilot would have to turn to avoid flying over Pearson's house. Seale admitted to flying over Pearson's home that weekend at an altitude of about 200 feet. At trial, he testified that there would be no reason why a plane taking off or landing at Moundville would have to be below 500 feet over Pearson's home. Pearson testified that low overflights continued over his house until he filed his complaint in this case.
Seale contends that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion to dismiss the case on the ground that Pearson failed to join indispensable parties. Specifically, he argues, the FAA and the Alabama Department of Aeronautics were necessary parties to this action and the trial court should have determined that this action could not proceed in their absence. We note that the trial court did not explicitly rule on Seale's motion to dismiss.
Holland v. City of Alabaster, 566 So.2d 224, 226 (Ala.1990) (citations omitted). Rule 19(a) reads in pertinent part as follows:
The question whether a party is indispensable is to be decided based on the facts of each case. Holland, supra.
Seale contends that the FAA and the State Department of Aeronautics must be joined because they are responsible for the rules and regulations governing airports. Because those rules and regulations are "at the root of this case," Seale says, the aeronautics agencies have an interest in the outcome of this case.
However, this case has nothing to do with the rules and regulations of those agencies. The issue was whether the low overflights constituted a nuisance. At trial there was no discussion about whether flight patterns or altitude requirements should be changed. In fact, part of Pearson's case was that Seale was flying over his home at an altitude below that required by federal regulations. In a letter to this court declining to file an amicus curiae brief, the assistant attorney general representing the Department of Aeronautics wrote that the Department had determined that this case was a private-nuisance case that "does not affect the public airspace regulated by this Department [of Aeronautics]." Seale does not explain or give examples of how this case would have any effect on FAA or Department of Aeronautics rules. We agree that this case is purely a matter between Pearson and Seale, and the trial court did not err in not requiring that the FAA and the Department of Aeronautics be joined as indispensable parties.
Seale also argues that the trial court erred in not granting his motion for a judgment as a matter of law, or a remittitur, or, in the alternative, a new trial. It appears that the basis for each request is that the verdict was against the great weight of the evidence.
White v. Searcy, 634 So.2d 577, 579 (Ala. Civ.App.1994)
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Several witnesses testified that planes were flying low over the Pearson home. Seale himself admitted to making low flights over the home in what he called an attempt to determine when planes must turn to avoid flying over the home. He also said that there was no reason why on other...
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...in mere injury to property, mental distress, or suffering is not recoverable." (emphasis added)). The homeowners cite Seale v. Pearson, 736 So.2d 1108 (Ala.Civ.App.1999), for the proposition that "evidence of wantonness is the equivalent under Alabama law of 'insult or contumely,' such as t......
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...5. These allegations closely mirror the requirements for an award of mental anguish and punitive damages. See Seale v. Pearson, 736 So. 2d 1108, 1113 (Ala. Civ. App. 1999) ("[T]o recover punitive damages in a private-nuisance case, [plaintiff] had to show that the [nuisances] were 'wanton, ......