Lyon

Lyon v. Agusta, S.P.A.

Good Law
252 F.3d 1078·2001 WL 618584
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitJune 7, 2001Nos. 99-55986, 99-56011, 99-55987, 99-56010California4,937 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

Fernandez, J.

David Lyon, Steven Pollack and Roy Belzer were killed in the crash of an airplane. Kathy Lyon, et al., and Belinda Pollack, et al., survivors of David Lyon and Steven- Pollack, respectively, (collectively Survivors) brought this action against Agusta S.P.A., Agusta Aerospace Corporation, Sesto Calende Works of Agusta, and Siai Marchetti Corporation. The Agusta entities are owners of Marchetti, which designed and manufactured the aircraft. Those entities and Marchetti are instru-mentalities of the Republic of Italy. 1 Mar-chetti moved to dismiss the action on the basis that under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (the FSIA), the district court did not have jurisdiction over it. See 28 U.S.C. § 1604 . It also moved to dismiss on the basis that the action was barred by the provisions of the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 (GARA). See Pub.L. No. 103-298, 108 Stat. 1552 (1994) (provisions at 49 U.S.C. § 40101 notes). The district court denied the former motion and granted the latter. The Survivors and Marchetti appeal. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

On November 26, 1993, an airplane designed and manufactured by Marchetti and known as model F-260 crashed in Santa Monica,…

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