Aircraft Guaranty Corp. v. Strato-Lift, Inc.

103 F. Supp. 2d 830, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8220, 2000 WL 772817
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 15, 2000
DocketCIV. A. 96-CV-5513
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 103 F. Supp. 2d 830 (Aircraft Guaranty Corp. v. Strato-Lift, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aircraft Guaranty Corp. v. Strato-Lift, Inc., 103 F. Supp. 2d 830, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8220, 2000 WL 772817 (E.D. Pa. 2000).

Opinion

DECISION

JOYNER, District Judge.

This breach of contract action was tried before the undersigned in December, 1998. The parties have submitted their proposed factual findings, legal conclusions and briefs and the matter is now ripe for disposition. Accordingly, the Court now make the following:

FINDINGS OF FACT

I. . Plaintiff, Aircraft Guaranty Corporation (“AGC”), is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Heidelberg, Germany. The plaintiff also maintains a business address in the office of its Vice President, William Walker, in Houston, Texas. Plaintiffs President and Chairman of the Board is Connie Wood.

2. AGC’s principal business is providing title servicing and management services to non-U.S. citizens who want to own U.S. registered aircraft.

3. Defendant is Strato-Lift, Inc. (“SLI”), a Pennsylvania corporation, with its principal place of business in Morgan-town, Pennsylvania. Strato-Lift is in the business of manufacturing platform equipment. Although it has bought and sold various aircraft since 1985, it is not in the business of buying and selling aircraft but rather uses its planes for transporting its customers, going to trade shows and training programs and bringing people into its manufacturing plants.

4. Bernard Van Milders is a citizen and resident of Belgium and is the President of B. Van Milders, N.V., a corporation orga *832 nized and existing under the laws of Belgium.

5. B.Van Milders, N.V. (“Van Milders”) acts as an officer of several different companies, including Flying Partners, a Belgian partnership which sells partnership interests in corporate jets and planes to international businesses. The principal business of B. Van Milders, N.V. is buying and selling airplanes, largely through Flying Partners. There is no such entity as Bernard Van Milders, B.V., B. Van Mild-ers, b.v., Bernard Van Milders, b.v. or B. Van Milders, B.V.

6. B. Van Milders, N.V. and Aircraft Guaranty Corporation have a relationship whereby AGC sets up trusts and lease/operation agreements to procure November (FAA) registrations for Flying Partners aircraft in the United States. By utilizing an Ameriean/FAA registration, Flying Partners is able to reduce its operational costs in that it need only comply with the registration requirements of one country, as opposed to many, European countries.

7. At all times material hereto, Connie Wood was acting in his capacity as an officer, director, employee and agent of Plaintiff, Aircraft Guaranty Corporation.

8. In the summer of 1995, Strato-Lift decided to expose the 1993 Cessna Citation II which it purchased in April, 1995 from First of America Bank Corporation to the market. This was in keeping with Strato-Lift’s practice of buying late model, low mileage aircraft, keeping and using them for a few months and then re-selling them for the same or a slightly higher price than that originally paid. In this fashion, SLI was able to avoid a lot of the maintenance costs associated with flying a plane for a lot of hours.

9. SLI thus retained Kenneth F. Goodrich, d/b/a K.F. Goodrich Associates, Inc. (“Goodrich”) 1 , a sole proprietorship located in New Milford, Connecticut, to broker the sale of its plane. Goodrich thereafter advertised the plane in various trade publications distributed both nationally and internationally.

10. At all times material hereto, Kenneth F. Goodrich and/or K.F. Goodrich & Associates, Inc. was acting as the authorized agent for Defendant, Strato-Lift, Inc.

11. In late October or early November, 1995, Mr. Van Milders informed Mr. Wood that he was interested in obtaining a late model Cessna Citation aircraft to be used in the Flying Partners program. Specifically, Van Milders was looking for a plane which was built no earlier than 1991 with less than 1500 hours of air time and he authorized AGC to locate such a plane for him.

12. Although AGC was purportedly acting on behalf of its “trust client,” B. Van Milders, N.V., it was AGC — not Van Milders which was to take title to the plane from Strato-Lift.

13. On or about December 18, 1995, Mr. Wood requested a specification sheet on SLI’s Citation II aircraft, which had a serial number of “725” from Mr. Goodrich. That same date, Mr. Goodrich responded via facsimile transmission with the requested specification sheet and advised that the asking price for the plane was $3,550,000.

14. Wood and Goodrich began negotiating for the sale of the plane and following the exchange of various offers and counter-offers, on December 27, 1995, Mr. Wood offered to purchase the plane for the sum of $3.5 million subject to eleven (11) listed conditions. Mr. Goodrich signed the letter agreement and faxed it back to AGC that same day.

15. Among the conditions listed in the December 27, 1995 letter agreement were:

3. All FAA directed airworthiness directives & mandatory service bulletins to be complied with as of time of deliv *833 ery at expense of seller unless otherwise agreed to by the purchaser. Aircraft to be in airworthy condition per all applicable Federal Aviation Regulations at time of and place of delivery. Any CESS-COM scheduled “Phase Maintenance Items” due within sixty days (to include a Phase V inspection) to be completed prior to delivery at expense of seller.
4. Completion of a prepurchase inspection and test flight prior to and after completion of all maintenance and modifications performed. Prepurchase inspection and test flights will be at purchaser’s expense and discretion. Items to be inspected and the results of said inspection are to be to the sole discretion and satisfaction of the purchaser. Purchaser reserves the right to reject the aircraft for any reason. Airworthiness discrepancies discovered during the prepurchase inspection or test flights must be corrected prior to delivery by seller unless otherwise waived by purchaser.
5. Prepurchase inspection to be conducted at a disinterested third party maintenance facility mutually agreeable to both parties. Purchaser to bear expense of fuel and pilot expense to move aircraft to facility chosen for prepur-chase inspection.

16. At Wood’s request, Goodrich contacted the various Cessna Citation Service Centers in Toledo, Ohio, Greensboro, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida. Goodrich was advised that the Orlando, Florida facility was booked through the end of January, but the facility in Greensboro, North Carolina could take the plane on January 3rd and could complete the pre-purchase inspection by January 5th. Goodrich passed this information on to Mr. Wood, who was to contact the Greensboro center directly.

17. Prior to its involvement with SLI’s Citation II, AGC had had another plane inspected and maintenance work performed at AMR Combs, in Birmingham, Alabama, the sister company to American Airlines responsible for performing its inspection and repair work.

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103 F. Supp. 2d 830, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8220, 2000 WL 772817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aircraft-guaranty-corp-v-strato-lift-inc-paed-2000.