Boeing must pay $28M to family of UN consultant killed in Ethiopia crash, jury rules
A federal court jury has awarded over $28 million to the family of a United Nations consultant who died in the crash of a Boeing 737 Max jetliner in Ethiopia more than six years ago.The verdict was reached Wednesday on behalf of the relatives of Shikha Garg after two hours of jury deliberation that capped a weeklong trial in Chicago, where Boeing used to have its headquarters.It was the first civil trial stemming from the March 2019 disaster that killed all 157 people on board Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.“We and the family are gratified by the jury’s verdict.
It provides public accountability for Boeing’s wrongful conduct,” the family’s lawyers, Shanin Specter and Elizabeth Crawford, said in a statement after the verdict was read in court.Boeing will pay an additional $3.45 million to Garg’s husband, Soumya Bhattacharya, as part of a deal between him and the company reached outside of court.That, along with a 26% interest charge, brings the total amount Boeing will pay to Garg’s family to $35.8 million.The aircraft maker has negotiated pre-trial settlements in most of the dozens of wrongful death lawsuits filed in connection with the crash and a similar 737 Max disaster five months earlier off the coast of Indonesia, although details of the settlements were confidential and not disclosed.
Lawyers say less than a dozen lawsuits remain unresolved.In a statement Wednesday, Boeing apologized to all the victims’ families and said it respects their right to pursue their claims in court.Jurors weren’t tasked with weighing the aircraft maker’s liability in the crash because Boeing has already accepted responsibility.Instead, they were asked to award damages for matters such as loss of income and grief suffered by Garg’s family.Like a number of the other passengers, Garg, a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, was on her way to attend a U.N.
environmental assembly in Nairobi, Kenya.At trial, Specter painted a picture for the jur...