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Baumeister
& Samuels has represented injured passengers and crew and the
families of those killed in almost every major commercial airline
disaster that has occurred in recent years. Members of the firm
have served in leadership roles on the Plaintiffs’ Steering
Committees formed to handle the litigation in each of these
cases. The following are just a few of the recent cases in which
the firm has been involved.
Mitch Baumeister was one of the
primary trial attorneys responsible for obtaining a jury verdict
on behalf of the families of the victims killed while on board
Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988,
an act of international terrorism directed at citizens of the
United States. After more than three months of trial testimony,
the jury returned a verdict of willful misconduct against Pan
Am and its wholly owned security service subsidiary for their
failure to provide adequate airport security in both Frankfurt
and London which would have thwarted the terrorists’ ability
to place a bomb on board a plane bound for the United States.
Today, under the federal anti-terrorism statute, the firm continues
to represent these families in civil actions brought against
the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the terrorists
recently tried by a Scottish tribunal in The Hague.
In litigation commenced against
EgyptAir, the firm was retained by a number of families whose
loved ones died when EgyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic
Ocean off Nantucket Island on October 31, 1999 allegedly as
a result of the intentional act of one of the pilots. We are
also involved in the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 accident near
Point Magu, California on January 31, 2000, which crashed as
a result of the carrier’s faulty maintenance practices.
Baumeister & Samuels was retained
by both American and European families after Swissair Flight
111 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Peggy’s Cove, Nova
Scotia on September 2, 1998 as a result of an in-flight fire.
In light of the information gathered in the days following the
accident, the firm retained a world renowned aviation wiring
expert, as it was believed that the in-flight fire was caused
by defective Kapton wiring. Due to our internal investigation
and consultation with aviation wiring experts, we filed the
first lawsuit arising out of the crash against the airline and
aircraft manufacturer in order to focus attention on the long
standing problem of “wire fires.”
In addition, the firm represents
the families of both American and European passengers who lost
their lives when TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long
Island on July 17, 1996. In the days after the crash, we consulted
with industry experts well versed in aviation wiring, as we
believed that the accident was caused by faulty Poly-X wiring
on board the Boeing 747. After years of work by the National
Transportation Safety Board as well as the Plaintiffs’ Steering
Committee, in which members of the firm played a significant
role in focusing liability discovery on wiring issues, it was
conclusively determined that our initial belief as to the cause
of the accident was correct, and the crash was caused by defective
Poly X wiring which ignited an explosion in the aircraft’s central
wing tank. The faulty wiring allowed a high voltage current
to enter the aircraft’s center wing tank through the Fuel Quantity
Indicator Switch. The resulting spark ignited the volatile fuel/air
mixture within the tank and caused an explosion.
The crashes of Swissair Flight
111 and TWA Flight 800 highlight what we believe to be one of
the most troublesome problems facing the aviation industry today.
Faulty aircraft wiring has been determined to be the cause of
numerous accidents and unless steps are immediately taken to
alleviate this problem, additional crashes will regrettably
occur. It is for this reason that our firm is committed to promoting
aviation safety by focusing attention on this problem.
Recently, members of our aviation
team served as leading attorneys in the litigation arising out
of the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 into the Florida Everglades
on May 9, 1996. The accident was caused by a fire that erupted
in the cargo hold of the DC-9 jet after oxygen generators lacking
the required safety caps ignited during the take-off roll. Members
of our firm conducted all of the major depositions and liability
discovery during the litigation.
In addition to our extensive mass
disaster litigation experience, Baumeister & Samuels has also
represented victims and their families in a number of accidents
involving regional commuter airlines including the Comair Flight
3272 crash near Monroe, Michigan in January 1997, and the Atlantic
Southeast Airlines Flight 7529 crash which occured shortly after
take-off from Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport in August 1995. The
firm is proud to have recovered the largest settlements for
our clients in each of these accidents.
We also specialize in and have
handled hundreds of actions brought against aircraft, helicopter
and component part manufacturers for product failures causing
general aviation accidents. We have litigated against virtually
all general aviation manufacturers including Cessna, Raytheon,
Eurocopter, Pratt & Whitney, Textron and Teledyne. The firm
has litigated many actions involving negligent fixed base operators
and flight training facilities.
In addition to its aviation practice,
Baumeister & Samuels also has extensive experience litigating
against both government and corporate entities in the field
of toxic torts. We have brought multiple plaintiff actions on
behalf of individuals exposed to asbestos found in naval shipyards
and at various manufacturing facilities. We have also represented
individuals living adjacent to General Electric’s manufacturing
facilities in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls, New York, whose
groundwater was contaminated by trichloroethylene and other
solvents, resulting in a variety of chronic illnesses. In a
similar action against General Electric, we represented individuals
exposed to airborne contaminants arising out of the company’s
Moreau, New York dumpsite. The firm recently brought claims
on behalf of more than one hundred persons following Marathon
Battery’s massive airborne cadmium and lead contamination in
Cold Spring, New York, an area known at one time as the most
contaminated site in America. Each of these litigations resulted
in multi-million dollar settlements for our clients. |
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he worked with the enthusiasm
of a mastiff that had come upon a soup bone. He sensed
Plaskett being defiant on the witness stand, taking
him on. Okay, Baumeister told himself, all bets are
off. Baumeister slammed down one of his props - a dictionary
- on his podium. Then, his voice rising, his tone and
his questions combative, Baumeister used his leg for
leverage, steadily inching the podium closer, closer,
closer to Plaskett. ‘Counsel has got... the podium...
halfway up to the jury box and he’s practically in the
witness’s face’ , the defense attorney charged.... Then
minutes later, facing his witness anew, Baumeister pushed
the podium forward again as the defense attorney roared,
‘There he goes again!’.... It was vintage, New York
in-your-face Mitch Baumeister.
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Excerpted from the newly acclaimed book
by Gary M. Pomerantz, Nine
Minutes, Twenty Seconds The Tragedy and Triumph of ASA Flight
529, Crown Publishers September
2001. |
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