US jury finds Boeing not guilty in 737 MAX grounding lawsuit

NEW YORK, May 23 — A US jury found Friday that aerospace giant Boeing was not liable for lost revenue in a lawsuit involving its 737 MAX jets, which were grounded for 20 months following two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Polish airline LOT had accused Boeing of fraud and sued for US$250 million R(RM992 million) in lost income after the company’s alleged “purposeful and negligent false representations and omissions concerning the 737 MAX aircraft,” the initial complaint said.

The jury for the trial in a Seattle federal courthouse decided this was not the case, however, according to court documents reviewed by AFP.

“We are gratified by the jury’s verdict in our favour,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.

The case stemmed from claims by LOT that Boeing had to compensate it for lost business due to the lengthy MAX grounding in the aftermath of Lion Air’s 2018 crash and Ethiopian Airlines’ 2019 crash that claimed a joint total of 346 lives.

After the crashes, Boeing acknowledged that a flawed flight-stabilizing program known as the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) contributed to the disasters.

The 737 MAX jets were grounded from March 2019 until November 2020, when the US Federal Aviation Administration cleared the aircraft to resume service after Boeing upgraded the MCAS.

Victim family lawsuits 

The case from the airline, whose full company name is Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A., is the first MAX-related challenge to Boeing from a carrier to go to trial.

LOT said it “acknowledges” the verdict of the ruling.

“LOT will consider any further legal steps available to the Company under applicable law,” it said in a statement to AFP.

Boeing has also faced dozens of claims from family members of MAX crash victims, the vast majority of which have been settled out of court.

In a rare instance, a US jury awarded US$49.5 million in damages this month to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old American who died in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Last November, another jury awarded the widower of one of the MAX victims US$28.45 million. Another trial, in January, was halted when an out-of-court settlement was reached after the second day.

The next trial is scheduled for August 3 and focuses on the death of Michael Ryan of Ireland.

A US judge also dropped criminal charges against Boeing in November over the MAX crashes as part of an agreement with US prosecutors.

Under the settlement with the US Department of Justice, Boeing will pay US$1.1 billion in return for the dismissal of a charge of “conspiracy to defraud the United States” over its conduct in the certification of the MAX, according to a federal filing. — AFP