AIRCRAFT REPAIR LAWSUIT
- Attorneys Cited
- Related Practices
Date: October 1, 2007
MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 27, 2007 – A South Florida jury today awarded Avior Technologies, Inc. (“Avior”) and Avtech Executive Flight Center (“Avtech”), a fixed based operations facility and air charter company, $5, 414,619.00 against Cessna Aircraft Company following a five (5) day jury trial. The suit involved Cessna’s failed efforts to evaluate and repair a 1978 Cessna Citation 550 II Jet Aircraft, at the time worth approximately $2,000,000.00, and the primary income generating asset of Avior and Avtech. Counts in the Complaint included breach of contract, negligence (including professional negligence), and negligently providing false information for the guidance of others.
“I am very pleased by the outcome,” said Andrew Gold, lead counsel, Kluger Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin. “Mr. Nearing, the principal of the companies, struggled to keep the companies alive while Cessna continually misdiagnosed the aircraft’s problem, slowly selling off company assets until ultimately losing the business altogether. He deserved better and this verdict will help make it right.”
Nearing operated Avior and Avtech, formerly based in South Florida, out of Kennesaw, Georgia. In April, 1999, the 1978 Cessna Citation was involved in a ground incident which damaged the wing and fuselage. Repairs, lasting 4 months, were handled by the Cessna Citation Service Center in Wichita, Kansas. The aircraft was released back to Nearing with pressure related problems which ultimately manifested itself by fuel traveling from the fuel tanks located in the aircraft’s wings into the pressurized passenger compartment of the aircraft. The aircraft was returned to Cessna for evaluation and repair. Several months after repairs on the leak were completed, the leak reappeared and again the aircraft was taken to the Cessna Citation Service Center. The Cessna Citation Service Center determined that the only way to repair the aircraft was to replace the wings at a cost in excess of $1,000,000.00. To date, Nearing had repair charges from Cessna Service Center totaling $300,000.00. Nearing and his companies were not able to pay for the wing replacement and subsequently Gibraltar Bank, of Coral Gables, who had provided working loans to Nearing, initiated a foreclosure along with senior lender, Textron Financial. Upon the completion of the foreclosure, Textron Financial sold the aircraft for $125,000.00.
The new owner took the Cessna Citation 550 II to a small (13 person) aircraft repair shop in Arkansas, who specialized in fuel leaks. The facility found that although Cessna was resealing the wing with each repair, they did not remove old, loose primer underneath the sealant which was creating a leak path. The total amount charged by the Arkansas facility to the new owner to repair the fuel leaks - $31,500.00. The new owner has flown the aircraft since 2004 without a similar incident.
The case was tried before the Honorable Judge Robert Scola in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Attorney Andrew P. Gold of Kluger Peretz Kaplan & Berlin was lead counsel, Tom Manos also of Kluger Peretz Kaplan & Berlin led the damages arguments. Plaintiffs experts included James Ladesic of Embry Riddle University, Donald Sebastian of Aviation Consulting Services, Inc. and Dana Kaufman of Koch Reiss and Company. Mr. Nearing currently serves as General Counsel to Mastec, Inc.
About Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin, P.L.
Florida-based Kluger, Peretz, Kaplan & Berlin P.L. is a boutique law firm with offices in Miami and Boca Raton. Providing a broad range of legal services across a diverse and global business portfolio, the firm’s 50-plus attorneys are engaged principally in the practice of commercial litigation and dispute resolution, bankruptcy and creditors' rights, intellectual property law, and corporate and real estate transactions. Please visit us at www.kpkb.com for more information.
Richard Dodson, Chief Operating Officer
Kluger Peretz Kaplan & Berlin
(305) 379-9000
-END-
