Judge Finds Swiss Company Planned To Resell Its Jets

The Swiss startup company that accused Eclipse Aviation of illegally canceling its orders for 112 very-light-jets has dropped its lawsuit against the planemaker, after a US District Court judge uncovered some discrepancies in its case.

As Aero-News reported in September, Aviace Ltd. filed suit against Eclipse for delaying its first several orders. The company also claimed Eclipse later cancelled its orders outright, after the company failed to pay fees Aviace maintained it did not owe.

Aviace said Eclipse wanted to sell its jets to other customers, for higher prices. Terms of the suit called for Eclipse to either reinstate its original delivery schedule, or pay compensatory and punitive damages.

Aviace also filed a request for a preliminary injunction, that would have prevented Eclipse from reassigning Aviace's delivery slots to other customers.

US District Court Judge Christina Armijo denied that request this weekend... and the Albuquerque Journal reports that may have been the writing on the wall for Aviace.

In her decision on the preliminary injuction, Armijo ruled it was Aviace, not Eclipse, that incorrectly interpreted the terms of the 2002 contract between the two companies... and that Aviace did owe Eclipse a $634,000 deposit under the terms of the contract.

Perhaps most significantly, Armijo also found that Aviace had since changed its own business plan. Originally, Aviace was intended to be a charter and fractional program... but the company later shifted its intent to sell the planes it received to other customers for higher prices.

That wasn't part of the original contract, Armijo said.

"Aviace has not shown a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits of any of its claims," Armijo wrote.

As for Eclipse, the company is presently working on final modifications to its planes, in anticipation of starting deliveries to customers shortly.

FMI: www.eclipseaviation.com