High Court Determines City Is Not Responsible For Actions Of Contractor

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that the city of Lewiston is immune from a lawsuit stemming from an airplane accident in which three high school students were fatally injured.

The accident occurred in 2006 during a summer camp for students in the Lewiston High School Junior ROTC program. The three students were participating in an orientation flight when it impacted terrain on Barker Mountain, killing the students and the pilot. The NTSB determined the probable cause of the accident was pilot error, and another student who had flown with the pilot said he had a history of "showing off" and performing dangerous maneuvers.

Maine Public Broadcasting reports that the families of the students reached settlements with Twin Cities Air Services, which owned the airplane and provided the pilot. But they had also filed a wrongful death suit against the school district and the city, contending that they had knowledge that the situation would be dangerous and did not act on that knowledge.

The city argued that Twin Cities Air Services made the choice of pilot, and that flying the airplanes was the company's responsibility, but a superior court judge ruled last year that the city was not immune from the suit despite a Maine law that does not hold government entities responsible for the actions of independent contractors.

The Main Supreme Judicial Court's 4-3 decision agrees with the city of Lewiston that it is immune under the Tort Claims Act. But in the dissent, three justices said that the immunity should not apply because the city was "using" the airplane when the accident occurred.

FMI: www.courts.state.me.us/maine_courts/supreme/index.shtml