Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. AAR Aircraft Services, Inc.

167 F. Supp. 3d 1311, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28753, 2016 WL 867116
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedMarch 7, 2016
DocketCase No. 1:14-cv-20560-KMM
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 167 F. Supp. 3d 1311 (Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. AAR Aircraft Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. v. AAR Aircraft Services, Inc., 167 F. Supp. 3d 1311, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28753, 2016 WL 867116 (S.D. Fla. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT MANKIEWICZ COATINGS, LLC’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND DENYING HAWAIIAN AIRLINES, INC.’S MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

K. MICHAEL MOORE, CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This cause is before the Court on Plaintiff Hawaiian Airlines, Ine.’s (“HAL”) and Defendant Mankiewicz Coatings, LLC’s (“Mankiewicz”) cross-motions for summary judgment. HAL moves for partial summary judgment, [D.E. 171], while Mank-iewicz moves for full summary judgment, [D.E. 191]. For the reasons that follow, Mankiewicz’s motion for summary judgment is granted.

I. BACKGROUND

This is an action for damages brought by HAL, a commercial airline based in Honolulu, Hawaii, against Mankiewicz, a seller and distributor of commercial paint products, relating to alleged accelerated filiform corrosion sustained on the fuselages of eleven of HAL’s Boeing B717 air-crafts.1 HAL’s claims are based primarily on allegations that Mankiewicz misrepresented the suitability of its chromate-free (“CF”) paint system for use on HAL’s 717s, which HAL relied on in using Mank-iewicz paint products to repaint those air-crafts. Based on these allegations, HAL asserts various contractual, warranty, misrepresentation, and statutory claims against Mankiewicz.

In 2008, HAL purchased several Airbus A330 aircrafts.2 Through this purchase, HAL engineer Christina Tredway, among other HAL representatives, learned from Airbus that Mankiewicz’s CF primer and paint was used on the A330s, and that the paint system was Arbus Original Equipment Manufacturer (“OEM”) approved. HAL’s engineers were impressed by the fact that the Mankiewicz paint system was lighter, dried quicker, had superior color retention, and was safer for the environment than systems using chromate-based primers.

The following year, HAL decided to repaint its existing fleets of Boeing 717s and 767s. Looking to use a uniform paint system, Tredway and Mankiewicz’s Director of Sales and Marketing, Phong Lai, arranged a meeting in Hawaii to discuss extending the use of Mankiewicz’s CF paint system on HAL’s 717s and 767s.

On August 3, 2009, Mankiewicz’s Managing Director, Peter Dietz, and Lai flew to HAL’s headquarters in Honolulu to meet with HAL representatives. At the meeting, Mankiewicz marketed its CF paint system as Airbus OEM approved, but not Boeing OEM approved.

After the presentation, Tredway emailed Mankiewicz a draft of HAL Engineering Specification Document 51002 (the “ESD”). The ESD approved two options for repainting the exteriors of its Boeing 717s and 767s. The first option specified Mankiewicz’s CF paint system as the “preferred method of paint.” The second option specified a chromate-based paint system, [1315]*1315which was Boeing OEM approved and met the DMS 2104 standard for 717s.3

Two weeks later, Mankiewiez provided HAL’s engineering team with test data showing that its CF primer system complied with Airbus specifications and Aerospace Material Specification 3095 (“AMS 3095”).4 HAL engineer and corporate representative, Dan Smith, reviewed this data — which HAL admits was correct— and confirmed that Mankiewicz’s CF paint system passed all corrosion-related tests.

Several months later, in October 2009, HAL finalized, reviewed, and approved the ESD specifying Mankiewicz’s CF paint system as the “preferred method” for repainting HAL’s 717s. In reviewing and signing off on the ESD, HAL relied on test data, not sales presentations.

HAL knew Mankiewicz’s CF primer system was chromate-free, not Boeing OEM approved, and not included in Boeing’s Qualified Parts List (“QPL”) of the 717 maintenance manual, which HAL engineers had access to and were familiar with. When deposed, neither Smith nor anyone else from HAL could identify a specific written or oral statement from Mankiewiez in 2009 that its CF paint products were Boeing approved or would meet the DMS 2104 standard.

HAL had an ongoing, decades-long relationship with Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas for Boeing and legacy McDonnell-Douglas aircrafts. HAL had previously called Boeing personnel with questions or concerns regarding the use of certain paint products on its aircrafts. On this occasion, however, HAL did not ask Boeing whether Mankiewicz’s CF paint system met Boeing specifications, was Boeing OEM approved, or would meet HAL’s particular needs.

About a month after approving the ESD, HAL contracted with AAR Aircraft Services, Inc. (“AAR”), a maintenance, repair, and overhaul company located in Miami, Florida, to refurbish eleven of HAL’s 717s. Part of the refurbishment included repainting the 717s using Mankiewicz’s CF paint system.5

HAL did not contract directly with Mankiewiez to purchase the CF paint products. Instead, AAR purchased .the paint products directly from Mankiewiez, which it would then use to repaint the 717s. HAL did not discuss with AAR why HAL chose the Mankiewiez paint system.

As part of its agreement with HAL, AAR submitted a series of purchase orders (“POs”) to Mankiewiez to purchase the CF paint products specified by HAL. Mankiewiez responded by tendering corresponding order confirmations (“OCs”), followed by delivery notes and invoices, setting forth the quantities, prices, and terms of the products purchased by AAR. Certain of AAR’s POs referenced HAL or specific HAL 717 tail numbers so that AAR would know to bill the invoice to HAL. HAL is not mentioned in Mankiew-icz’s OCs or delivery notes, nor is HAL mentioned in the “terms and conditions” of the POs. Mankiewicz’s Managing Director, Peter Dietz, testified that he intended Mankiewiez to be the primary beneficiary of the agreements.

[1316]*1316From 2010 to 2011, AAR stripped, pretreated, and repainted eleven of HAL’s 717s on a rolling basis. AAR also inspected and verified that the stripping and repainting conformed to HAL’s engineering documents.

In 2012 and 2013, HAL began discovering . what it characterizes as accelerated filiform corrosion on the 717s repainted by AAR. After being advised of the corrosion issue, Boeing personnel traveled, to Hawaii to examine the aircrafts. Boeing conducted a visual inspection of certain 717s and took three paint chip samples for testing from one 717. Boeing’s engineers did not perform a causal analysis for the corrosion, but instead tested the paint chips for the presence of chromate only. The test results confirmed that Mankiewicz’s paint products do not contain chromate. Based on this finding, Boeing’s engineers concluded that HAL’s use of a non-OEM approved primer was one of the causes of the filiform corrosion to the 717 fuselages, referring to it as the “root cause.”

On June 30, 2014, HAL filed its Amended Complaint alleging claims against Mankiewicz for breach of contract (Count I), breach of third-party beneficiary contract (Count II), breach of implied warranty of merchantability (Count III), breach of implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose (Count IV), breach of warranty (Count V), breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing (Count VI), misrepresentation (Count VII), unjust enrichment (Count VIII), violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practice Act (“FDUTPA”) (Count IX); and violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (Count X).6

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pop v. LuliFama.com LLC
M.D. Florida, 2023
Young v. Hyosung USA, Inc.
N.D. Alabama, 2020
Beanstalk Innovation, Inc. v. SRG Tech., LLC
338 F. Supp. 3d 691 (S.D. Ohio, 2018)
Steadfast Insurance Co. v. Celebration Source, Inc.
240 F. Supp. 3d 1295 (S.D. Florida, 2017)
Thompson v. Carnival Corp.
174 F. Supp. 3d 1327 (S.D. Florida, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 F. Supp. 3d 1311, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28753, 2016 WL 867116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hawaiian-airlines-inc-v-aar-aircraft-services-inc-flsd-2016.