Shaw v. Grumman Aerospace Corp.

593 F. Supp. 1066, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23652
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedSeptember 12, 1984
Docket81-2295-Civ
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 593 F. Supp. 1066 (Shaw v. Grumman Aerospace Corp.) 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
Shaw v. Grumman Aerospace Corp., 593 F. Supp. 1066, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23652 (S.D. Fla. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION CONTAINING FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

ARONOVITZ, District Judge.

THIS CAUSE was tried to the Court non-jury. It is a case arising under the Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C. § 761 et seq. and Federal Admiralty Law, 28 U.S.C. § 1333. The Court has heard the testimony of the lay and expert witnesses, received numerous exhibits, examined the entire Court record, and has heard Oral Argument by respective counsel. Accordingly, there is herewith entered this Court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law based upon the aforegoing.

Findings of Fact

1. On December 12, 1979 at about 4:00 o’clock A.M., Navy Lieutenant J.G. Gary S. Shaw was killed when the Grumman A-6 aircraft he piloted, NG523, Bureau Number 151566 (“subject aircraft”), pitched violently and suddenly into the ocean about 100 miles off San Diego immediately after hav: ing been catapult-launched from the aircraft carrier Constellation. The crash occurred within two to three seconds after *1068 launch and within several hundred feet forward of the bow of the Constellation.

2. Neither the bodies of Lieutenant Shaw and his bombardier-navigator Lieutenant Bates nor the wreckage of NG523 were ever recovered.

3. Plaintiff Edwin Lees Shaw, the father of the decedent, is the Personal Representative of the Estate of Gary Scott Shaw, deceased, and the estate is being probated in Dade County, Florida.

4. Grumman Aerospace Corporation is a citizen of the State of New York with its principal place of business in the State of New York. It also is authorized to do business in the State of Florida.

5. At all times material, Gary Scott Shaw was a resident of Fort Lauderdale.

6. At all times material, the subject aircraft was being used in a reasonably foreseeable manner for its intended purpose and Gary Shaw was a foreseeable user.

7. As a result of his death, Gary Shaw’s widow suffered loss of his support and services; loss of inheritable estate he might have accumulated; and the expenses for his funeral. Their daughter, Kelly, lost the benefit of his support, services, nurture, guidance, and inheritable estate. The parties and their attorneys agreed and stipulated that these damages total $840,-556.75, with the exception of certain possible deductions (VA benefits) and/or additions (pre-judgment interest).

8. An extensive Naval J.A.G. investigation into the accident was conducted by Lieutenant Commander John Schork, who was the assistant maintenance officer on board the Constellation at the time of the accident, and an eyewitness to the events.

9. The investigation included interviews with other eyewitnesses, ship’s personnel and friends of Gary Shaw. It also included information gathered from the aircraft logbooks and records, the film of the fatal launch, and simulated tests of various possible breakdowns on the hydraulic flight systems trainer at Whidbey Island.

10. This Court admitted into evidence those portions of the Factual Findings made by Lieutenant Commander Schork in his authority as investigating officer. Although his opinions as contained in the Report (Plaintiff’s exhibit 19) were not admitted verbatim as opinions expressed in the Official Report of Investigation, nevertheless he testified that if questioned on direct examination as to each opinion, rendered therein, he would confirm and testify as stated. Rather than taking his exact testimony, plaintiff therefore adopted by reference his opinions while the witness was on the stand, questioned him further and then turned him over for cross-examination as to his testimony on the Factual Findings as well as his own opinions which coincided with the Report of Investigation. Lieutenant Commander Schork considered the following possible causes of the accident and rejected them as only remote possibilities: engine failure; catapult failure; problem with the flaps and/or slats; pilot incapacitated; runaway trim; suicide or disorientation.

11. Narrowing down the most logical reason for the crash to the uncontrolled leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer, Lieutenant Commander Schork considered the six most likely problem areas to be (1) loss of a locking bolt in longitudinal control system; (2) willfull tampering; (3) damages to the control system by a foreign object; (4) failure of a major structural member of the aircraft; (5) failure of a component or attaching structure in the longitudinal control system; and (6) malfunction of the electro-mechanical Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS). Willfull tampering and failure of a major structural member were considered by Schork to be unlikely. He termed damage by a foreign object and malfunction of the AFCS remote.

12. Based on all of the information gathered in his investigation, it was Lieutenant Commander Schork’s opinion that the subject crash was due to either a loss or failure of hardware in the stabilizer actuation system. This conclusion was supported by the violent nose down pitch of the aircraft and the coincidence of stabilizer travel time during the actual launch as *1069 filmed and those simulated on the A-6 trainer at Whidbey Island, when the bolt connecting the load release bungee to the walking beam was disconnected. Lieutenant Commander Schork then was not only an eyewitness, a participant in the flight exercises, an expert in his own right with regard to the subject matter of the crash, but he also prepared the Official Report of Investigation.

13. All of the evidence including the above investigation and the opinion of expert witnesses, support the conclusion that a disconnect in the longitudinal flight control system of NG523 caused failure of that system and, because there was no alternate means for the continuation of safe flight in the event of such failure, the aircraft became uncontrollable. The opinions rendered, each respectively by both of the Plaintiffs expert witnesses, Thomas Lombardo and Ira Rimson, are credible and seemingly well-founded. This Court accepts these opinions as relevant and pertinent toward establishing liability asserted by the Plaintiff herein.

14. Joseph Novak, the A-6 engineering manager, a Grumman employee, testified by deposition (Plaintiffs exhibit 13 at p. 107, line 3-14) as follows:

“.. .Q. And your basic opinion concerning the disconnect which caused this crash, did that come about through your reading of the Navy JAG report?
A. No, we had a fundamental opinion back right at the time of the accident. Had nothing to do with reading a JAG report.
Q. And that was based on the flight characteristics coming over the cat?
A. Chir understanding of the report of the behavior of the airplane coming off the cat leads the opinion to be that there was a probable disconnect in the longitudinal control system...”

and again, Joseph Novak in Plaintiffs exhibit 13 at line 2:

“.. .A.

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593 F. Supp. 1066, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23652, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaw-v-grumman-aerospace-corp-flsd-1984.