Stone ex rel. Estate of Stone v. Frontier Airlines

• Decision Date: 17 April 2002
• Docket Number: No. CIV.A. 01-11817-WGY.,CIV.A. 01-11817-WGY.
• Citation: 256 F.Supp.2d 28
• Parties: Christine STONE, as Administratix of the ESTATE OF Brett STONE and Individually, Plaintiff, v. FRONTIER AIRLINES, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

256 F.Supp.2d 28

Christine STONE, as Administratix of the ESTATE OF Brett STONE and Individually, Plaintiff, v. FRONTIER AIRLINES, INC., Defendant.

No. CIV.A. 01-11817-WGY.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

April 17, 2002.

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Ronald C. Kidd, Robinson, Donovan, Madden & Barry, Springfield, John E. Garber, Weinberg & Garber, P.C., Paul S. Weinberg, Weinberg & Garber, P.C., Northhampton, for Christine Stone, as Administratrix of the Estate of Brett Stone, and individually, Plaintiff.

Kurt B. Gerstner, Mary McGoldrick, Campbell, Campbell, Edwards & Conroy, PC, Boston, Arthur F. Roeca, for Frontier Airlines, Inc., Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

YOUNG, Chief Judge.

[T]he Constitution professed to solve what was an apparently insoluble political problem. ... [I]t purported to create a consolidated federal government with powers sufficient to coerce obedience to national laws—in effect, to discipline a truly continental union—while remaining true to the republican principles of 1776. At least logically, this was an impossibility, since the core impulse of these republican principles, the original "spirit of '76," was an instinctive aversion to coercive political power of any sort and a thoroughgoing dread of the inevitable corruptions that result when unseen rulers congregate in distant places. ... Critics of the Constitution, then and now, have condemned it as a betrayal of the core principles of the American Revolution. ... Strictly speaking, they were and are historically correct. Defenders of the Constitution, then and now, have saluted it as a sensible accommodation of liberty to power and a realistic compromise with the requirements of a national domain. That has turned out, over time, to be correct. ...

Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers, 9 (2000).

One aspect of this "realistic compromise" is the doctrine of preemption: the supplanting of state law by federal law. "Congress's power to preempt state law derives from the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution." French v. Pan Am Express, Inc. 869 F.2d 1, 1 (1st Cir.1989) (internal citations omitted). Preemption "is compelled whether Congress' command is explicitly stated in the statute's language or implicitly contained in its structure and purpose." Morales v. Trans World Airlines Inc., 504 U.S. 374, 383, 112 S.Ct. 2031, 119 L.Ed.2d 157 (1992) (internal citation omitted) (emphasis added).

This is all well and good. Unfortunately, in today's mature—some would say overly-complex—legal landscape, virtually any federal legislation carries implications for existing state law and requires analysis of the preemption doctrine. In recent years, many commentators have decried what they perceive as the Supreme Court's expansive implied preemption jurisprudence. See, e.g., Caleb Nelson, Preemption, 86 Va. L.Rev. 225, 229 (2000) (noting that "conservative advocates of federalism and liberal advocates of government regulation have joined in arguing that the current tests for preemption risk displacing too much state law"); Betsy J. Grey, Make Congress Speak Clearly: Federal Preemption of State Tort Remedies, 77 B.U. L.Rev. 559, 561 (1997) (commenting that "corporations have attempted to turn [federal statutes] from regulatory swords into private shields"); Donald P. Rothschild, A Proposed "Tonic" with Florida Lime to Celebrate Our New Federalism: How to Deal with the "Headache" of Preemption, 38 U. Miami L.Rev. 829, 830 n. 3 (1984) (noting that "present preemption doctrines interfere with a state's right to supplement federal regulation in order to afford greater protection for citizens residing within its borders"); see also Judith Resnik, Constricting Remedies: The Rehnquist Judiciary, Congress, and Federal Power, 78 Ind. L.J. 223, 309 n. 460 (2003) (noting that a majority of the federal judiciary has been willing to override state law in preemption cases). Indeed, the Supreme Court has gone so far as to preempt an older federal civil rights statute with more restrictive, but recent, federal statutes. Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. Nat'l Sea Clammers Ass'n, 453 U.S. 1, 20, 101 S.Ct. 2615, 69 L.Ed.2d 435 (1981) (holding a section 1983 action precluded by the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act); Smith v. Robinson, 468 U.S. 992, 1011-13, 104 S.Ct. 3457, 82 L.Ed.2d 746 (1984) (section 1983 action precluded by the Education of the Handicapped Act) (superseded by Education of the Handicapped Act § 615(e) as amended); see also Canty v. Old Rochester School Dist., 54 F.Supp.2d 66, 73-77 (D.Mass.1999) (discussing these two decisions critically).

The sweep of the Supreme Court's implied preemption doctrine is of particular concern to Congress because Congress' focus is necessarily on the issue sought to be remedied by a pending bill, not on the unintended consequences for existing state and federal legislation. Indeed, even express Congressional disclaimers of preemptive effect have proven ineffective in light of this jurisprudence. See, e.g., Geier v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., 529 U.S. 861, 867-68, 120 S.Ct. 1913, 146 L.Ed.2d 914 (2000) (holding that federal transportation statute preempted state tort claim, despite a "savings clause" that stated that the federal law "does not exempt any person from any liability under common law"); Frank v. Delta Airlines, Inc., 314 F.3d 195, 199 n. 6, 201. (5th Cir.2002) (holding that federal statute respecting drug testing of airline employees preempted a terminated employee's state tort claims against his employer); National Audubon Society, Inc. v. Davis, 307 F.3d 835, 854 (9th Cir.2002) (holding that federal wildlife preservation law preempted state preservation law despite statutory savings clause); Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., v. City of Lodi, 302 F.3d 928, 952 (9th Cir.2002) (holding that federal environmental waste cleanup statute preempted local law, despite statutory savings clause); Macfarlane v. Canadian Pacific Ry. Co., 278 F.3d 54, 59 (2d Cir.2002) (holding that federal railway safety statute preempted state tort law, despite statutory savings clause).

So it is that, in this case, what once was a central issue of the common law of torts, see, e.g., The T.J. Hooper, 60 F.2d 737 (2d Cir.1932) (L.Hand, J.); W. Page Keeton, et. al., Prosser & Keeton on Torts 194 (5th ed.1984) (citing The T.J. Hooper for the proposition that an industry "cannot be permitted to set its own uncontrolled standard[s]" of care), and thus committed to the wisdom of the nation's juries, must now first be addressed by a judge to see whether Congress, inadvertently or not, has once more restricted recovery under state tort law.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Facts

A young man, full of promise, died of cardiac arrest aboard an airplane operated by Frontier Airlines ("Frontier"), whose planes were not equipped with Automatic External Defibrillators ("defibrillators") at the time. That man, Brett Stone ("Mr. Stone"), was 28 years old, a NCAA record holder in swimming, and a successful venture capitalist. Compl. ¶ 4. He had been accepted into the Harvard Business School, where he planned to matriculate in January, 2001. Id. ¶ 5.

On July 27, 2000, Mr. Stone and his wife, Christine ("Mrs.Stone"), were aboard Frontier Flight 419, originating from Boston, heading for vacation in San Francisco. Id. ¶¶ 7-8. While in the air, Mr. Stone suffered a cardiac rhythm disturbance that resulted in cardiac arrest. Id. ¶ 9. Mrs. Stone, having recognized her husband's distress, immediately alerted a flight attendant. Id. ¶ 10. The attendant requested the assistance of any qualified medical personnel, and a physician and an emergency medical technician—who were passengers aboard the flight—promptly attended to Mr. Stone. Id. ¶¶ 11-12. The physician then requested a defibrillator. Id. ¶¶ 12. The plane's emergency medical kit, however, contained neither a defibrillator nor any other medical device or drug capable of treating cardiac arrest. Id. ¶ 14. Despite the extraordinary efforts of the physician and emergency medical technician, Mr. Stone died. Id. ¶ 15.

According to Mrs. Stone, at the time of Mr. Stone's death, Frontier was on notice as to the wide use and effectiveness of defibrillators for in-flight cardiac arrests. A summary of the ways in which Frontier was allegedly on notice follows:

1. General Awareness

Medical emergencies during commercial airline flights in the United States cause hundreds of deaths each year and a high percentage of such deaths are cardiac-related. Id. ¶¶ 21-22. According to the reports and data collected under the Aviation Medical Assistance Act of 1998 ("Medical Assistance Act"), while incomplete, the most commonly observed serious in-flight medical events are cardiac in nature, with ventricular fibrillation being the most common form of abnormal heart rhythm. Id. ¶ 23.

2. Defibrillator Deployment and Use by Other Carriers

As early as 1991, foreign airlines flying in the United States had equipped their planes with defibrillators. Id. ¶ 25. Defibrillators have been effective in saving the lives of numerous passengers on foreign carriers and at airline terminals since November 1994. Id. ¶ 26. Since 1992, the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross have targeted airlines for increased deployment of defibrillators. Id. ¶ 27. By the time of Mr. Stone's death, most major domestic long-distance commercial airlines and many smaller carriers had equipped their planes with defibrillators and Enhanced Emergency Medical Kits. Id. ¶ 28. In April 1997, Congress held hearings on the deployment of defibrillators on commercially operated airplanes; those hearings included testimony from family members of cardiac arrest victim passengers, as well as from defibrillator manufacturers. Id. ¶ 29. American Airlines had been deploying defibrillators on its flights since July, 1997. Id. ¶ 32. American saved...