United States First Circuit

In plaintiffs' wrongful death lawsuit against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) arising from a deadly small plane crash, the district court's judgment in favor of the United States is affirmed where: 1) given the lack of mandatory language in paragraph 5-5-9 of the FAA Air Traffic Control Manual (ATCM) on the issue of when to maintain the separation, the district court correctly understood the question posed by plaintiffs as one of what a reasonable controller would have done on these particular facts; 2) the court's finding that the controller acted as a reasonable controller was not clear error; 3) plaintiffs failed to show clear error in court's finding that, even if the defendant had owed and breached a duty under paragraph 5-5-9, there was no causal connection between any breach by him and the accident, or in the court's finding that the accident was not foreseeable to the controller; and 4) district court did not clearly err in rejecting plaintiffs' argument that the controller should have known the aircraft was in unsafe proximity to the terrain.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/09/2009
• Published 09/09/2009

Judges

• LYNCH, Chief Judge., Before LYNCH, Chief Judge, EBEL and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Louis R. Martinez with whom Richard Ritorto, Martinez & Ritorto, PC, Jaime E. Morales, Morales-Morales Law Offices, Franklin F. Bass, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP, Doris Quinones Tridas, and Quinones Tridas Law Office, PSC were on brief for appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Henry B. Goddard, Jr., Trial Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, Torts Branch, with whom Michael F. Hertz, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, United States Attorney, Andrew M. Eschen, Trial Attorney, and Sarah S. Keast, Trial Attorney, were on brief for appellee.