Trials & Litigation
Lawyer seeks damages after his snowmobile crashes into Black Hawk helicopter
A Massachusetts lawyer is awaiting a decide’s determination following a bench trial in his $9.5 million lawsuit alleging that the navy was negligent for leaving a U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopter on a snowmobile route at nightfall. (Picture from Shutterstock)
A Massachusetts lawyer is awaiting a decide’s determination following a bench trial in his $9.5 million lawsuit alleging that the navy was negligent for leaving a U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopter on a snowmobile route at nightfall.
Jeffrey Smith of Massachusetts, a 43-year-old “small-town actual property lawyer” on the time of the March 2019 crash, said the unlit camouflaged helicopter was on an deserted air strip in Worthington, Massachusetts, MassLive.com studies.
Smith’s accidents included 12 damaged ribs and a punctured lung. He has undergone a number of surgical procedures, and he has misplaced many of the feeling on his left aspect, in keeping with his legal professionals.
“The final 5 years, there’s been surgical procedure, restoration, surgical procedure, restoration,” Smith told the Associated Press.
He works solely half time, and he can’t use his left arm because the crash, he mentioned.
Smith additionally sued the proprietor of the airfield, who settled for an undisclosed quantity.
The federal government has argued that it will probably’t be sued below the Federal Tort Claims Act as a result of the coaching crew’s conduct was policy-related. U.S. District Choose Mark G. Mastroianni of the District of Massachusetts rejected the federal government’s argument, made in a movement for abstract judgment, in July 2022.
On the January bench trial, the federal government argued that Smith was carrying tinted goggles after nightfall, and he instructed investigators that he was conscious {that a} helicopter was within the space. Smith’s estimated pace was 65 miles per hour, and his blood alcohol degree was barely under the authorized restrict, they argued.
In Smith’s proposed findings of fact, he mentioned his pace was was between 26 miles per hour to 39 miles per hour, as decided by his professional. Earlier than the accident, he had consumed two beers, two Adderall and one Suboxone that had been prescribed by his physician. A witness mentioned he was not intoxicated.
“When Mr. Smith lastly was capable of see the helicopter, it was too late,” in keeping with the proposed findings of truth.
