Boeing reached a last-minute settlement in one of two lawsuits in this week’s trial in Chicago over a 2019 737 MAX crash that killed 157 people, attorneys announced Wednesday.
The accord leaves a single plaintiff remaining in the first civil trial over the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which began in earnest Wednesday after attorneys on Tuesday finalized jury selection.
The litigation centers on how to calculate monetary damages to plaintiffs from Boeing, which acknowledges the need to compensate victims but disputes the amount.
Opening statements were pushed back after the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Clifford, announced a settlement involving the relatives of Kenyan-born Mercy Ndivo, who died in the crash aged 28 along with her husband, leaving behind a daughter and her parents.
“Our clients are very appreciative of the court allowing them to use its resources to achieve the justice they required,” said Clifford, adding that the amount of the settlement was confidential.
During Wednesday’s proceeding, Ndivo’s father, Frederick Ndivo, approached US District Judge Jorge Alonso and expressed gratitude. Ndivo was joined in the courtroom by his wife and eldest daughter.
“We are so grateful,” Ndivo said in court. “We wish the legal system of the United States will continue upholding the rights of the people… the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The lawsuits stem from the March 10, 2019, flight that crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board.
Family members of 155 victims filed lawsuits between April 2019 and March 2021, alleging wrongful death and negligence, among other claims.
Alonso has been splitting the cases into groups with five or six plaintiffs at a time. In prior rounds, the judge has canceled proceedings after all the cases in a group settled.
In addition to Ndivo, Clifford reached settlements with relatives of two other victims, Abdul Jalil Qaid Ghazi Hussein, 38, the father of seven children and Nasrudin Mohammed, 30, who was pregnant with a fourth child.
– Remaining litigants –
Litigants in the remaining case are the relatives of Shikha Garg of New Delhi, a consultant for the United Nations Development Program who had been traveling to Nairobi for a UN Environmental Assembly.
In opening remarks on the case, Shanin Specter, an attorney for Garg’s survivors, described the victim as “beautiful, inside and out.”
He painted a picture of an accomplished young woman who had just married her partner of six years, Soumya Bhattacharya, three months before the crash.
A photo showed Bhattacharya and Garg on their wedding day, dressed in traditional Indian clothes of red and glittering gold.
The two had met while working at the United Nations and were supposed to fly to Kenya together, but Bhattacharya had a work conflict.
“She wrote to him that she would call him when she landed,” Specter said. “A phone call that was never made.”
– Damages –
The jury must award money in four categories including compensating Garg’s lifetime earnings, the trauma she endured before the crash, fair compensation for Bhattacharya’s loss of companionship and the harms associated with Bhattacharya’s grief.
“Mr. Bhattacharya is not here for your sympathy!” Specter said. “He is here for justice.”
In his opening statement defending Boeing, attorney Dan Webb did not dispute Boeing’s full responsibility for the accident.
He urged the jury to render a verdict that would compensate Garg and her husband, but disputed Specter’s contention that Garg suffered physical injuries before the crash.
“Boeing agrees with Mr. Specter that Boeing should pay significant compensation,” Webb said. “We disagree on the actual amount.”
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