Winbourne v. Eastern Airlines, Inc., 83-3109
| Decision Date | 09 August 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 83-3109,83-3109 |
| Citation | 758 F.2d 1016 |
| Parties | Ernest Glenn WINBOURNE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. EASTERN AIRLINES, INC., Defendant-Third Party-Plaintiff Appellant, United States of America, Third Party Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles, Francis G. Weller, Marc J. Yellin, New Orleans, La., for Eastern Airlines.
Tara C. Neda, Dept. of Justice, Aviation and Admiralty Section, Washington, D.C., for U.S.A.
Perez, Fernandez, Seemann & Egan, Manuel Fernandez, Chalmette, La., Frederick Seemann, Lafayette, La., for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Before REAVLEY, JOHNSON and JOLLY, Circuit Judges.
The wife and two daughters of Ernest Glenn Winbourne died in the crash of an Eastern Air Lines plane in 1975. Liability is conceded by Eastern and by the United States, the employer of air traffic controllers assumed to have been negligent. The district court awarded total damages of $1,010,610.24. Of this, Eastern's liability is limited to $225,000 under terms of the Warsaw Convention and the Montreal Agreement. The United States' liability is therefore $785,610.24.
Eastern appealed the award of interest on the $75,000 per seat limitation, but that issue was decided adversely to Eastern by a panel of this court in Domangue v. Eastern Air Lines, Inc., 722 F.2d 256 (5th Cir.1984).
The United States complains that the amount of the damages is excessive. The district court assessed the damages as follows:
1. $500,000 for the loss of love and affection of plaintiff's wife.
2. $210,610.24 for the economic loss due to his wife's death. There were two components of this economic loss: her teacher's salary and her household services 3. $150,000 for the loss of love and affection of his 8 year old daughter.
4. $150,000 for the loss of love and affection of his 4 year old daughter.
This award was made by the trial judge in a careful and detailed opinion. The economic loss computations were based on the specific testimony of an economist. The evidence established the unusual nature of this plaintiff's damages in the loss of his family. From a very happy family man, vigorous in his life and work, he became not only a man crushed by sudden tragedy but one who remained lost and disturbed. None of this evidence was rebutted or questioned by the defendant. We cannot upset the district court's damage findings unless we hold them to be clearly erroneous. Caldarera v. Eastern...
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