Sikkelee v. Precision Airmotive — civil — reversal — Krause

The Third Circuit today held that federal aviation-safety law does not preempt state-law products-liability claims, reversing on interlocutory review a district court grant of summary judgment. The appeal arose from a fatal Cessna plane crash in 2005; the pilot’s wife alleged that the crash was caused by faulty design of the plane’s carburetor.

The opinion features a thorough and thoughtful discussion of preemption, “a necessary but precarious component of our system of federalism.” (On this point the opinion cites a 1995 Kennedy concurrence, notable because Judge Krause clerked for Kennedy in 1994-95.) The court rejected an expansive interpretation of a prior landmark preemption case, Abdullah v. American Airlines, 181 F.3d 363 (3d Cir. 1999), holding that Abdullah does not govern products-liability claims. It then proceeded to a close analysis and Congressional intent and relevant precedent.

Joining Krause were Chagares and Van Antwerpen. The high-powered arguing counsel were Teijinder Singh of Goldstein & Russell for the appellant and Kannon Shanmugam of Williams & Connolly for the appellees.