Family Sues Cirrus, Dentist Sues Lost Pitcher's Estate

New York City, considered one of the legal capitals of the world, boasts 23,000 members of the New York City Bar Association... so it's not hard to find a lawyer in the Big Apple when you need one.

In an accident involving New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, Cirrus, and an Upper East Side apartment building where many "do you know who I am" people live, there is no shortage of attorneys willing to stand in the spotlight alongside Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal -- a celebrity dentist whose clients include Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and Donald Trump -- or widow Melanie Lidle.

Melanie Lidle has filed a lawsuit against Cirrus Design on February 22, claiming product liability and negligence, including "catastrophic failure" of the craft's flight control system, according to court papers.

The suit was filed in Santa Monica, CA alleging the manufacturer should have known the plane was unsafe because of design problems that allegedly hinder a pilot's ability to make tight turns.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, but has not released its Probable Cause report, as Aero-News has reported.

Lidle and his instructor were flying a Cirrus SR-20 down the East River corridor when the plane crashed into the high rise last October. The two had taken a midday flight past the Statue of Liberty and north up the East River. They apparently had trouble when they tried to turn and head south.

Lawyer Todd Macaluso, also a pilot, is seeking unspecified damages on behalf of the wives and families of Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger.

The issue of fault is key to the Lidle family being able to collect a $1 million insurance policy from Major League Baseball.

In question is who was flying the aircraft; Lidle's Major League Baseball policy includes a $450,000 benefit, with an accidental death benefit of $1.05 million. However, it includes an exclusion for "any incident related to travel in an aircraft ...while acting in any capacity other than as a passenger," the Associated Press reported.

Not to be left out of the Lidle case, even if he lives 13 floors above the crash site, Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal, a dentist to the rich and famous, filed a $7 million complaint against Lidle's estate, claiming his home was destroyed when Lidle's small plane crashed into the apartment building in Manhattan.

He claimed the apartment sustained "severe damage, including broken windows, smoke damage, loose bricks and extensive other damage" that forced him, his wife and son out.

The suit claims Lidle was "reckless, careless and negligent," reported the New York Daily News.

Lidle's plane hit the building on the 30th floor, 13 floors below Rosenthal's apartment. Both Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger were killed in the crash. Lidle's plane had departed from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport.

Lidle earned his pilot's license seven months earlier.

Rosenthal's lawyer, David Jaroslawicz, said Thursday that "everything was destroyed" in his client's home and the family has been renting while waiting to return. He said their home is actually three apartments joined to make one apartment that is worth "several million dollars."

Rosenthal's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan state Supreme Court, names Lidle's wife, Melanie Lidle, as the defendant in her capacity as administrator of her late husband's estate.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.faa.gov