Myers v. The Boeing Company
Washington Supreme Court
115 Wn.2d 123 (2006)
- Written by David Bloom, JD
Facts
The Boeing Company (Boeing) (defendant) manufactured an airplane that crashed in Japan. Most of the victims killed in the crash were Japanese nationals. The personal representatives of the estates of the Japanese nationals (plaintiffs) and the non-Japanese nationals (plaintiffs) filed lawsuits against Boeing. The actions were consolidated. After the trial court bifurcated the actions, Boeing admitted liability and motioned to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds the damages cases brought on behalf of the Japanese victims. The trial court granted the motion but conditioned the dismissal on Boeing’s consent to jurisdiction in Japan, waiver of statute-of-limitations defenses, and admission of liability for compensatory damages. The trial court left open the possibility of the Japanese nationals’ cases returning to the trial court if the damages trial could not be handled expeditiously in Japan. The other actions brought on behalf of the non-Japanese nationals remained with the trial court. The Japanese nationals appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Durham, J.)
Concurrence (Utter, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 819,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
