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Products Liability Keyed to Fischer, 6th Ed.
Boyle v. United Technologies Corp.
Citation:
487 U.S. 500 (1988)Facts
On April 27, 1983, David A. Boyle, a United States Marine helicopter copilot, was killed when his CH-53D helicopter crashed off the coast of Virginia Beach during a training exercise. Boyle survived the initial impact but drowned when he could not escape from the submerged helicopter. His father brought a diversity action against Sikorsky, the helicopter manufacturer, alleging two theories of liability under Virginia tort law: (1) Sikorsky had defectively repaired a device in the helicopter’s flight control system that allegedly caused the crash, and (2) Sikorsky had defectively designed the copilot’s emergency escape system. The defective design claim centered on the fact that the escape hatch opened outward instead of inward, making it ineffective in a submerged craft due to water pressure, and that access to the escape hatch handle was obstructed by other equipment. A jury returned a general verdict for the plaintiff, but the Court of Appeals reversed, finding that Sikorsky was protected by the “military contractor defense.”
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