Spellissy v. United Technologies Corp.
| Decision Date | 03 August 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-3260,86-3260 |
| Citation | 823 F.2d 438 |
| Parties | Susan Aline SPELLISSY, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Michael J. Spellissy, deceased, et al.; Carol Joan Balog, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Robert William Balog, deceased, et al.; Joseph Bialowicz, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Mark Bialowicz, et al.; Hope Gibson, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Richard Gibson, deceased, et al.; Suellen Sebring, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Larry Thomas Sebring, deceased, et al.; Nicholas J. Caltagirone, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Ronald J. Caltagirone, deceased, et al.; Christine Ann Keck, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Timothy Norman Keck, deceased, et al; Marie Koch, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Edward Koch, deceased, et al.; Kikuie McCord, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Collie McCord, deceased, et al.; Virginia Beach, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Edward J. Beach, deceased, et al.; Melissa V. Kelly, Lenora A. Barnett, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Larry Dean Barnett, et al.; Maira Rita O Campos, individually and as one qualified to be Personal Representative of the Estate of Liberto Campos, deceased, et al.; Brenda McConkey, individually and as Personal Representative of the Estate of Robert F. McConkey, III, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Joel D. Eaton, Joel S. Perwin, Podhurst, Orsek, Parks, Josefsberg, Eaton, Meadow & Olin, P.A., Miami, Fla., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Robert S. Cooper, Jr., Port Haywood, Va., for Barnett.
Robert B. White, Rapp, White, Janssen & German, Philadelphia, Pa., for McConkey, et al.
Kathleen M. O'Connor, Thornton, David & Murray, Miami, Fla., for General Dynamics Corp.
Robert F. Spohrer, Norwood S. Wilner, Zisser, Robison, Spohrer, Wilner & Harris, P.A., Jacksonville, Fla., Ralph S. LaMontagne, Jr., Kern & Wooley, Los Angeles, Cal., for Aviall, Inc.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before KRAVITCH and EDMONDSON, Circuit Judges, and TUTTLE, Senior Circuit Judge.
This is an appeal by an injured passenger and by next-of-kin or the personal representatives of persons killed in the crash of a Navy airplane in the St. John's River near Jacksonville, Florida from a verdict in favor of the defendant, Aviall, which had repaired the engine whose failure caused the crash, and from the dismissal on motion for summary judgment of their complaint against General Dynamics, the manufacturer of the aircraft.
These 14 personal injury complaints arose from the death of the crew and all but one of the passengers in a U.S. Navy C-131F transport plane on April 30, 1983, while attempting to make an emergency landing at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, following a fire in the left engine of the plane. Plaintiffs' actions against Aviall were based on the contention that its predecessor, Cooper Air Motive, had negligently installed used or otherwise unauthorized piston pin assemblies in the aircraft's left engine during an overhaul in 1976. The piston pin in No. 8 cylinder of the left engine of the plane failed shortly after takeoff, resulting in an in-flight fire which caused the left wing to fall and the plane to crash.
The complaint against General Dynamics is that General Dynamics had manufactured the aircraft in question and was liable for negligence and breach of implied warranty as well as strict liability for the alleged deficiencies of the aircraft.
General Dynamics filed its motion for summary judgment, based on the Florida statute of repose, Sec. 95.031(2) Fla.Stat. (1985), since the aircraft had been delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1955 and the statute of repose barred any actions for product liability after a period of 12 years. The trial court granted the motion and dismissed the complaint against General Dynamics.
Thereafter, the case went to trial against Aviall and the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant. The plaintiffs then filed their motion for judgment n.o.v. or in the alternative, for a new trial. This motion was denied. This appeal resulted.
In their effort to demonstrate that the fire causing the accident resulted from the insertion by Aviall of a used piston pin assembly instead of installing a new piston pin assembly during the left engine's overhaul, plaintiffs introduced circumstantial evidence sufficient to have permitted the jury to find in favor of plaintiffs. However, the defendants introduced a substantial amount of evidence, seeking to rebut any inference which the jury could have made from plaintiffs' evidence. No argument is made here that any of the evidence introduced by the defendants was admitted erroneously by the trial court, nor do the plaintiffs make any contention that any charge of the trial court was given in error. The only issue is whether there was sufficient evidence introduced at trial to support the finding of the jury.
Essentially, this evidence consisted of the following:
A. Plaintiffs' Evidence
It was undisputed that the fire was caused by the fracturing of the piston pin assembly in cylinder No. 8 of the left engine, a rotary motor containing 18 cylinders. Only a very few pieces of the piston pin assembly from cylinder No. 8 were recovered. However, all of the piston pin assemblies of the remaining 17 cylinders were recovered. A piston pin assembly may be described as follows: the assembly consists of three components which, together are designated as P/N 202445. One component is a hollow steel cylinder just short of six inches in length and not quite one inch in diameter, which is designated P/N 19165, and two aluminum plugs, which are forced into the ends of the pin. They are designated P/N 202444. When the two plugs are inserted in the pin, the result is a complete P/N 202445 piston pin assembly.
The manner in which the piston pin assembly operates was described as follows. Each cylinder has a piston which is, in turn, attached either to a link rod or a master rod by a piston pin assembly. The cylinders, pistons and piston pin assemblies are numbered in accordance with their respective locations within the engine. On one row, the cylinders carry even numbered designations, and in the other row, odd numbered designations. In each row of cylinders there are eight link rods and one master rod. The master rods are located in cylinder No. 8 in one row of cylinders and cylinder No. 9 in the other. The rods transmit the energy from the combustion in the cylinders to the crankshaft.
The failure of the No. 8 piston pin unleashed the master rod, which tore open the No. 8 cylinder and then the two adjacent cylinders, Nos. 6 and 10. Oil spilled out, which ignited and resulted in an intense in-flight fire. The master rod also crimped the oil feathering line which interfered with the feathering of the No. 1 propeller which might delay the crews' discharging the fire extinguisher bottles. The intensity of the fire here caused the wing to separate from the fuselage which, of course, caused the aircraft to crash.
Plaintiffs' metallurgical expert expressed the opinion that the fragments of the failed piston pin established that it failed in fatigue. There was evidence introduced by the plaintiffs that fatigue could result from "long time" use, that is, use for a longer number of flight hours than the number of hours it is intended or designed to serve. There was also proof that at the time of overhaul, all of the pin assemblies had been in service for a number of hours of use that approached the maximum deemed appropriate for such pin assemblies.
The plaintiffs' evidence was to the effect that the defendant used only piston pin assemblies that were marked with the proper logo of Aircraft Certified Engineering, Inc. (hereinafter A.C.E.), which supplied the pin assemblies to Aviall, and there was opinion evidence from two metallurgists that the No. 8 pin could not have been new when installed in the left engine by defendant in 1976.
The plaintiffs' witness, Smith, the son of the owner of A.C.E., testified that the 17 piston pin assemblies that were recovered had not been manufactured by A.C.E. He based this testimony partially on the manner in which the pin assemblies were marked; he testified that they had been manually vibropeened, and that this was contrary to the method by which the pin assemblies were marked by Jackson Bar Products, the company that supplied the parts to A.C.E. He testified that Jackson Bar utilized the roll stamp method to mark the pins; that these markings resembled typewriting.
The plaintiffs' evidence also included the fact that piston pin assemblies had, on some occasions, been inspected, cleaned and reused by Aviall in engines for use in civilian planes, which engines were of the same characteristics as the Navy C-131F involved here, and that such activities were carried on by some of the same personnel who were engaged in overhauling the military engines.
It is helpful at this point to quote appellant's brief with respect to its contention that a used piston pin assembly was installed at the overhaul instead of a new assembly:
Defendant produced a portion of its internal work instructions for D.P.I. which permitted the pooling of complete pistons and piston pins, [emphasis in original] and dispensed...
To continue reading
Request your trial