United States v. Douglas Aircraft Co.

The United States brought an action to recover the sum of $10,589.61 as damages to a government owned airplane, resulting from a collision with an airplane owned and operated by Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc., Thomas W. Scott, the pilot, being joined as defendant. The jury brought in a verdict for the defendants, judgment was entered, and the United States appeals.

On November 11, 1943, at the Los Angeles Municipal Airport, Los Angeles, California, on a diagonal runway, a collision occurred between a P-51 airplane having a 37 foot wing spread, owned and operated by the plaintiff-appellant, and a S.B.D. airplane having a 42-%-foot wing spread, owned and operated by the defendant-appellees.

The airport consists of two main runways which are 300 feet wide, with macadamized strips running the length of the field, parallel to each other but separated by a clear plot of ground. Diagonally from the four corners of the field 150 feet wide, macadamized runways bisect the main runways.

At the time of the accident, the airport was managed by employees of the City of Los Angeles. The plaintiff-appellant was a tenant of the City, as was the Civil Aeronautics Authority, an agency of the…