Ellis v. AAR Parts Trading2/4/2005
UNPUBLISHED
These consolidated appeals arise out of two lawsuits filed in the trial court on behalf of 113 plaintiffs who were Philippine decedents who died as a result of a plane crash on April 19, 2000, in the Philippines. The defendants, AAR Parts Trading, Inc. (hereinafter AAR), a parts company, and Fleet Business Credit, LLC (hereinafter Fleet), a financing company, filed motions to dismiss predicated on the doctrine of forum non conveniens in order to transfer the plaintiffs' consolidated cases from Cook County, Illinois , to the Philippines. In this appeal, we are called upon to review two trial court orders: (1) the trial court's November 20, 2002, order denying the defendants' motion to dismiss the "02L" Katherine A. Ellis (hereinafter Ellis) cases; and (2) the trial court's April 8, 2003, order denying AAR's renewed motion to dismiss Jovy Layug (hereinafter Layug) and Fleet's initial motion to dismiss Layug. The defendants' interlocutory appeals were filed on December 21, 2002 (the Ellis appeal) and on April 8, 2003 (the Layug appeal), pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 306(a)(2) (134 Ill. 2d R. 306(a)(2)), and were consolidated on June 5, 2003, by the appellate court.
BACKGROUND
In 1978 the Boeing Company, located in Seattle, Washington, manufactured a Boeing 737 jet and sold it to AAR, an Illinois corporation with its principal place of business in Illinois. AAR leased the Boeing 737 to the Air Philippines Corporation. Later, AAR sold the Boeing 737 and assigned its rights, title and interests to Fleet, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Illinois.
On April 19, 2000, the Boeing 737 jet, Air Philippines Flight 541, crashed into a 577-foot-high hill, located in Samal Island, while on a domestic flight from Manila to Davao City in the Republic of the Philippines. At the time of the crash, Air Philippines Flight 541 was in the process of making a second attempt to land on the runway. Everyone on the flight, including seven crew members and 124 passengers, died in the crash.
THE COMPLAINTS
On August 2, 2000, Layug filed a complaint as an individual plaintiff, against AAR. Layug is a resident of Cook County, but the decedent, her mother, was a resident of the Philippines. In the initial, one-count, products liability complaint, among other allegations, Layug alleged that the Boeing 737: (1) lacked proper and current manuals for operation, maintenance and/or repair; (2) was beyond its safe operational life expectancy; (3) was comprised of structures that were fatigued, cracked, corroded and otherwise in a condition that would likely lead to failure of the aircraft; and (4) contained a flap control system that was fatigued and likely to fail. Layug alleged that as a direct and proximate cause of these defective, unreasonably dangerous and unfit conditions, the aircraft crashed and caused the decedent to be fatally injured.
On September 19, 2000, Layug filed her first amended complaint, which contained three counts. In addition to the products liability count in her initial complaint, the plaintiff added count II based upon negligence, and count III for breach of warranty. On November 22, 2000, AAR filed its answer to Layug's first amended complaint, and on January 19, 2001, AAR filed a motion to dismiss based upon the doctrine of forum non conveniens pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 187. 134 Ill. 2d R. 187. However, before the trial court could rule on AAR's motion to dismiss the first amended complaint, Layug filed a second amended complaint on February 13, 2001, adding an allegation in the complaint that she had been appointed the administrator of the decedent's estate.
On A
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Illinois Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|