After a fatal aviation crash destroyed a valuable home, the homeowners and their insurer sued our client, a former owner of the aircraft, alleging he was responsible for the pilot’s negligence. We employed an innovative defense that any claims were barred by a rarely asserted federal law. 

Because there were no survivors and no liability insurance to cover the loss, our client became the target defendant in a million-dollar case venued in Texas and Oklahoma. We first got the claim dismissed in Texas, and when it was filed again in Oklahoma, we crafted a novel preemption defense that could have relieved our client of all liability under federal law, regardless of whether he was an owner of the aircraft. The case settled for less than 5 percent of the damages incurred by the plaintiffs.