Shurr v. A.R. Siegler, Inc.
| Decision Date | 10 November 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-C-364.,95-C-364. |
| Citation | 70 F.Supp.2d 900 |
| Parties | Renee SHURR, Special Administrator of the Estate of Russell Shurr, Deceased; Renee Shurr, individually; et al., Plaintiff, v. A.R. SIEGLER, INC., a/k/a Lear Romec, Division of Lear Siegler, Inc., a/k/a Romec Division of Lear Siegler, a/k/a A.K. Siegler, Inc., a/k/a Lear Romec, a Division of Crane Corp., a/k/a Lear Romec Division of Crane, Co., et al., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Wisconsin |
Charles J Hausmann, Jeffrey P Zarzynski, Hausmann-McNally, Milwaukee, WI, Raymond Paul Johnson, Johnson Law Office, Los Angeles, CA, for Renee Shurr, Gwen Schlicht, Valerie Russell, Ione Starszak, Debra J Foran.
Russell A Klingaman, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Milwaukee, WI, Reid S Jacobson, Louis W Brydges, Sr, John W Dixon, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Waukegan, IL, for AR Siegler Inc, Lear Romec Corp, Hydro-Aire Co.
Russell A Klingaman, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Milwaukee, WI, Reid S Jacobson, Louis W Brydges, Sr, John W Dixon, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Waukegan, IL, Henry B Goddard, Mark A Dombroff, Terence M Healy, Dombroff & Gilmore, Washington, DC, for Crane Co.
Patrick W Schmidt, Jeffrey K Spoerk, Eric J Van Vugt, Quarles & Brady, Milwaukee, WI, for Lear-Siegler Inc, BFM Aerospace Corporation.
Michael R Wherry, Michael K Scott, Davis & Kuelthau, Milwaukee, WI, Keith Gerard, Richard C Coyle, Perkins Coie, Seattle, WA, for Boeing Co.
Michael R Wherry, Michael K Scott, Davis & Kuelthau, Milwaukee, WI, Russell A Klingaman, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Milwaukee, WI, Keith Gerard, Richard C Coyle, Perkins Coie, Seattle, WA, Reid S Jacobson, Louis W Brydges, Sr, John W Dixon, Hinshaw & Culbertson, Waukegan, IL, for Underwriters at Lloyds of London, The.
Henry B Goddard, Mark A Dombroff, Terence M Healy, Dombroff & Gilmore, Washington, DC, for Crane-Hydro-Aire Inc.
DECISION AND ORDER
On December 10, 1993, six Air National Guard maintenance crew members were killed when a KC-135R tanker aircraft exploded as they inspected its fuel system at General Billy Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee. This action is brought by the surviving spouses of five of the Air National Guard members. Plaintiffs allege that a fuel pump installed in the airplane six days before the explosion was defectively designed and manufactured, and have sued Crane Company ("Crane"), which made the pump, and the Boeing Company ("Boeing"), which issued a set of specifications for the fuel pump and approved an earlier version. Before me are defendants' motions for summary judgment and Crane's motion for partial summary judgment on punitive damages.1
A district court has subject matter jurisdiction over cases between citizens of different states. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1). Diversity of citizenship is present only if no defendant shares state citizenship with any plaintiff. Strawbridge v. Curtiss, 7 U.S. (3 Cranch) 267, 2 L.Ed. 435 (1806). In considering subject matter jurisdiction sua sponte, as I must, Rice v. Rice Foundation, 610 F.2d 471, 474 (7th Cir.1979), I discovered several issues which needed to be addressed, and held a telephone conference with the parties to do so. First, all plaintiffs are Wisconsin citizens in their personal capacities. (R. 60 ¶¶ 5-13.)2 However, their citizenship for the claims they assert as executors or administrators of decedents' estates is determined not by their citizenship, but by that of decedents, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(c)(2), and their pleadings are silent regarding decedents' citizenship. The parties stipulated that decedents were Wisconsin citizens. (R. 169 ¶ 1.) Second, two defendants which were Crane predecessors or are Crane subdivisions denied in their answers that they were foreign corporations and that their principal places of business were in other states. (R. 70 ¶ 18 (BFM Aerospace Corp.); R. 71 ¶ 17 (Lear Siegler, Inc.).) All parties stipulated that all Crane predecessors and subdivisions with independent existence are foreign to Wisconsin and have their principal places of business elsewhere; Crane's counsel said that he could stipulate on their behalf. (R. 169 ¶¶ 2-3.)
The third issue arises from the presence of multiple sets of Underwriters of Lloyds of London as defendants in the case.3 Lloyds of London is an unincorporated association whose member "names," or underwriters, join syndicates which in turn join together to issue insurance policies. Indiana Gas Co. v. Home Ins. Co., 141 F.3d 314, 316 (7th Cir.1998), cert. denied sub nom. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London v. Indiana Gas Co., ___ U.S. ___, 119 S.Ct. 339, 142 L.Ed.2d 280 (1998). Each name — frequently a natural person — bears unlimited personal liability, but may be sued only through the syndicate or the lead underwriter on a given policy. Id. at 316-17. Hundreds of names may be members of a given syndicate. Id. at 316. Under Seventh Circuit precedent, if a Wisconsin citizen is one of the names participating in any of the syndicates participating in any of the relevant policies, diversity is destroyed and the case must be dismissed. Id. at 319.
To avoid this prospect, plaintiffs moved under Fed.R.Civ.P. 21 to dismiss the Lloyds underwriters as defendants. (R. 169 ¶ 4.) All parties (including all Lloyds underwriters who filed appearances, represented by counsel for Crane and for Boeing) stipulated that the underwriters were not necessary parties under Fed.R.Civ.P. 19(a). Id. Because I see no reason to suspect otherwise, I grant plaintiffs' motion.
I therefore find that plaintiffs and their decedents are all Wisconsin citizens, (R. 60 ¶¶ 5, 7, 9, 11, 13; R. 169 ¶ 1), and that all remaining defendants are foreign corporations with non-Wisconsin principal places of business (R. 68 ¶ 20; R. 72 ¶ 19; R. 169 ¶ 2-3). Thus, this court has diversity jurisdiction.
KC-135R tanker aircraft provide air-to-air refueling to other military aircraft. The KC-135R's fuel system includes several fuel tanks and pumps to move fuel from the tanks, both to supply the KC-135R's own engines and to refuel other aircraft while flying. The fuel pumps are mounted inside the fuel tanks themselves. They are therefore continuously submerged in jet fuel, or, more dangerously, in a mixture of jet fuel and air, which is, as Crane acknowledges, an "explosive environment." (R. 88 at 40.)
One of the fuel pumps in the KC-135R which exploded was a Lear Siegler model RR12280A pump.4 This pump has a cast-aluminum housing and is driven by an electric motor. The motor is powered by four 18-gauge wire leads, three "hot," and the fourth a neutral ground. These motor lead wires feed into the top of the pump, the "end bell." The motor is cooled by jet fuel, which enters and exits the pump's housing from the fuel tank through vent holes. One of the vent holes, referred to as the upper vent hole, is located at the top of the end bell, directly over the wire passage.
The pump's design thus calls for running "hot" electric wires through an explosive mix of jet fuel and air. To reduce the risk of fire and explosion, the wires are individually insulated. In addition, the design calls for a Teflon insulation sleeve to be placed over each wire.
The KC-135R's pump was recovered largely intact after the explosion and resulting fire. It was examined by both plaintiffs' and defendants' experts, and twice by the Air Force. These investigations revealed that the red motor lead wire (one of the "hot" wires) had arced inside the pump's end bell, burning through three of its seven strands and its red insulation. Although a Teflon insulation sleeve is present on the red wire, plaintiffs' and Crane's experts agree that the red wire is approximately 5.5 inches long but that the Teflon sleeve runs for only 1.75 to 2 inches of that length. (R. 112 Ex. B ¶ 8, Ex. 23 at Fig. 53(b); R. 89 Ex. C ¶¶ 5, 7 & Ex.)
The pump's aluminum end bell housing showed extensive evidence of localized heat damage at the upper vent hole. The Air Force found that arcing created a pit nearly half-way through the pump's housing and enlarged the vent hole itself. (R. 112 Ex. 2 ¶ III.4.) Energy dispersive X-ray analysis of the interior of the end bell revealed the presence of several elements — fluorine and carbon — found in the insulation on the motor lead wires. (R. 112 Ex. B ¶¶ 10-11, Ex. 22.) This suggests that the motor lead wires melted against the interior of the end bell. (R. 112 Ex. B ¶ 11.) In addition, X-ray analysis found copper on both the interior of the vent hole in the end bell and on the exterior of the end bell immediately outside the vent hole. (Id. ¶¶ 11, 13; R. 112 Ex. 22.) Copper melts at 1940 degrees Fahrenheit. (R. 112 Ex. 1 at J-9.) The presence of cooled copper both inside and outside the upper vent hole suggests that the intense heat of the arcing may have caused the copper in the wire to have melted into plasma and then forcibly ejected — through the vent hole, out from the pump's end bell, and into the explosive mix of jet fuel and air inside the fuel tank. (Id.; R. 112 Ex. B ¶ 13.) X-ray analysis shows carbon on the exterior of the aluminum end bell near the upper vent hole, which plaintiffs' expert attributes to fire soot. (R. 112 Ex. B ¶ 13.)
A series of Air Force simulation experiments following the explosion found that molten metals, principally aluminum, could be ejected through a vent hole in a closed aluminum block when a copper wire inside the aluminum block was made to are close to the vent hole, and that the energy in such ejected debris or plasma "is capable of igniting any flammable hydrocarbon." (R. 112 Ex. 2 at 5.)5
Summary judgment is required "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if...
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