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Boeing has finally settled for an undisclosed amount in the lawsuit that resulted from the deaths of 154 passengers and crewmembers in Spain over 15 years ago. The case was brought against Boeing as the manufacturer of the ill- fated plane through their acquisition of McDonald Douglas. BCA argued that Boeing was aware of a mechanical defect that increased the risk of error during takeoff but failed to apply a known fix to all of their planes. While there were initially several law firms involved in the litigation, only Brent Coon & Associates held out and fought for a trial for their clients. After all of the legal wrangling the Civil Courts in Spain finally allowed litigation to move forward to trial, 15 years after Spanair flight JK5022 crashed, killing 154 people.
Brent Coon, whose firm undertook representation early on in the initial lawsuit in California, finally feels like his clients have been vindicated. “We have been fighting the good fight for these victims and their families for well over a decade. It has been extraordinarily frustrating to see Boeing dodging accountability for so long, and to succeed in convincing our own judiciary that the victims would get a swift and fair trial in Spain. They knew that wasn’t going to be the case, and showed their true colors once they obtained the rulings throwing everything back into the laps of the Spanish courts, which rarely deal with this type of complex litigation. We weren’t surprised to see them undertake multiple protracted appeals of the trial court rulings to further delay the matter and wear down these families, who were already devastated by the loss of their loved ones and impatient to ride out appeal after appeal. But we have weathered all the storms and got a definitive trial date. This positioned us to negotiate a fair settlement of our claims and these families can finally have closure. Spanish government oversight of the airline industry is frankly pretty weak or this would likely not have been allowed to happen in the first place,” says Mr. Coon.
Ivan De Miguel Perez, Spanish counsel to the plaintiffs, had this to say: “These recent developments allowed us to see that justice is now finally available for the people we have represented for such a long time in a tragic accident that happened as a result of negligence on a massive scale. While the terms of the settlements are confidential, we believe that our clients are receiving the maximum amount they would have been awarded by the court under the laws applicable to these types of claims in Spanish law. It has been a pleasure working with Brent Coon & Associates as their Spanish local counsel and look forward to working again with such a dedicated team of lawyers and staff. They just don’t give up”.
The history of this litigation has been long and complicated. For additional background, please see the following links:
Detailed press release on the history of the litigation:
Why is one of the deadliest crashes in aviation history yet to be resolved after 15 years?
CBS-produced documentary about the crash and investigation:
