American lawyers in bid to settle DC10 claims

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 12

American lawyers in bid to settle DC10 claims

NZPA Washington Lawyers in Los Angeles will meet on February 17 to see if they can settle claims filed for relatives of four passengers who died in the Air New Zealand DCIO crash on Mount Erebus. If the lawyers fail to agree the case will go back before Federal District Court Judge Malcolm Lucas. The claims were filed on behalf of four American residents — a married couple, a man and a woman — by a Los Angeles lawyer, Mr Dan Cathcart. He has accused Air New Zealand of wilful misconduct, and asserts that the cases are outside the scope of New Zealand’s Carriage By Air Act, which limits damages to a franc equivalent- which works out at ' well under SNZSO.OOO. The lawyer acting for Air New Zealand, Mr Frank Silane, said the airline held that the Carriage By Air Act did apply, but had nevertheless made “certain offers in excess” of that limit, including an offer in one instance of “several hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Mr Silane said he was reserving the right to withdraw the offers in excess of the Carriage By Air Act limit if they were not accepted and the case went to court. The Judge would then have the power to rule whether the New Zealand limits apply. Mr Cathcart said the damage limitation was “abhorrent” to public policy, and that the Carriage By Air Act did not extend outside New Zealand territory. (The question of whether the fatal flight was domestic or international — it was scheduled as a non-stop flight taking off from and landing in New Zealand — has been argued since the crash in November, 1979. which killed all aboard.) Mr Cathcart said Air New Zealand’s offers to settle the cases now amounted to “hundreds of thousands of dollars," and came to “about 50c in the dollar on what we would be claiming.” A “wilful misconduct" finding, which allows claimants to recover damages above limits set by national and international laws, has been returned against only one airline. This involved a Pan American Airways Boeing 707 crash in Pago Pago, American Samoa, in 1974. Damages of SUS 6 million were awarded to four survivors — including two New Zealanders — and the heirs of 18 victims. > Mr Cathcart, who specialises in aviation cases, repre-

sented most of those claimants.

He originally claimed millions of dollars also for the heirs of the four Mount Erebus DCIO victims. Mr Cathcart said he believed Air New Zealand genuinely wanted to settle the cases, but that if no agreement could be reached at the conference on February 17 and the Judge rejected the application of the Carriage By Air Act the result would be “just a turkey shoot."

In Washington the United States Navy has responded to a claim filed by a lawyer, Mr Don Madole, for SUSI 7 million - SUSI million for each of the families of the 17 crew members. The administrative claim alleges that United States Navy radar operators at McMurdo Sound were negligent in failing to warn the DCIO pilot that he was following an unusual course.

Mr Madole said that the Navy had neither denied nor accepted the charge, but was seeking more information, such as birth and marriage certificates.

The Navy has until near the end of May to respond, after which — presuming it rejects the claims — Mr Madole can take the case to a Federal court. He said he had no indication from the Justice Department that it wanted to. negotiate the claims.