Result: Verdict, $14,967,413
Airplane accident
Santa Clara County Superior Court
October 30, 2008
David Michelberg, 44, was an electrical engineer. In April 2005, he was a passenger in a Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft. The aircraft was in cruise flight near Paso Robles, California, when suddenly the aircraft engine began to run rough. There were loud bangs, the cockpit filled with smoke, the engine's number four cylinder departed the aircraft, and oil sprayed over the windshield.
The plane-which did not have shoulder harnesses-crash landed in a vineyard. Mr. Michelberg's head struck the instrument panel. He sustained skull fractures with bilateral frontal lobe contusions and a traumatic brain injury. Although Mr. Michelberg appeared normal in his ability to eat, walk, and talk, he claimed that as a result of the accident he lost his higher level of thinking, such as his judgment and his problem-solving ability.
He was taken by ambulance to Twin Cities hospital in Paso Robles and then transferred to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, where he was admitted for approximately six weeks and underwent brain surgery and reconstructive surgeries on his face and skull. In June 2005, Mr. Michelberg had two more surgeries for pneumocephalus. He claimed that he could not return to work and that he would need lifetime care. His wife, Rachel Michelberg, claimed loss of consortium.
The plane was powered by a six-cylinder Teledyne Continental engine. A few months before the crash, Aviation Classics Ltd., a maintenance facility in Reno, had removed and overhauled the engine's number four cylinder. When reinstalling the part, the mechanic working on the aircraft was supposed to fit an oil seal ring around the base of the cylinder where the cylinder mates to the engine case. The mechanic did fit the oil seal ring as required; before doing so, however, the mechanic applied a Teledyne product called Gasket Maker to the oil seal ring. Gasket Maker is a gel-like substance that comes in a tube. Teledyne promoted the product for use "everywhere" on its engines as an effective way to prevent oil leaks.
The O'Reilly Law Firm represented Mr. Michelberg in a suit against Teledyne for products liability (failure to warn) and against Aviation Classics for negligently installing the cylinder.
Aviation Classics conceded that the Gasket Maker sealant should not have been applied to the cylinder base and that its mechanic was not licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration. Aviation Classics argued, however, that Teledyne's instructions were confusing even to a properly trained mechanic, and so the instructions contributed to the error. Aviation Classics also argued that the engine failed not because of the sealant, but because of subsequent maintenance errors by others not named in the litigation.
Teledyne argued that its instructions did not call for the use of sealant in installing the cylinder, and that its warnings were sufficient to place a competent mechanic on notice of the hazards of using Gasket Maker on cylinder base O-rings.
The defendants also argued that the pilot was to blame because, after the engine failure, he passed by suitable airports in an attempt to reach the Paso Robles airport but came up short.
The O'Reilly Law Firm argued that the Teledyne maintenance manual was itself a product, and that its wording rendered the product defective. The firm also alleged that Gasket Maker causes engines to come apart during flight. The O'Reilly Law Firm further claimed that Teledyne knew of similar incidents involving other types of sealants, but did not add more effective warnings in its overhaul manual and did not make its instructions clear concerning the use of Gasket Maker.
The trial lasted six weeks. After six days of deliberation, the jury agreed that the overhaul manual failed to properly instruct on the installation of the cylinder. It found Teledyne Continental liable, as well as the mechanic who installed the cylinder, and awarded plaintiffs $14,967,413.
