Lawsuits begin to mount after Reno Air Races crash

The lawsuits which have been filed by a woman whose husband died and a man whom lost his eye have been moved to federal court. Lawyers for a list of defendants in the cases are expecting at least 50 more cases to be filed.

According to an official with the Reno Air Racing Association, they hope to avoid going to court in any case filed and instead will try to settle the cases out of court.

Sezen Altug, who lost her husband Craig Salerno in the crash, filed a $25 million wrongful death suit in Texas state court. Injured victim Gerry de Treville of Ukiah, Calif., filed a suit in Washoe District Court. The lawyers for Aero-Trans Corporation, owner of the P-51 Mustang that crashed into the tarmac, moved the cases to federal courts.

Reno Air Racing Association Officials have asked a judge to dismiss the Texas suit, stating that they are a company within Nevada and the Texas courts have no jurisdiction. There has not yet been a response.

The racing association’s business officer Dave Wilbern said they prefer to have all cases tried in Nevada.

“It’s easier for us to deal with them here,” Wilbern said.

Wilbern says that although the number of cases  that will be faced is still unknown, they will try to avoid court and settle when they can.

“We hope they never go to trial,” he said. “Why go to trial when you can settle?”

“Our insurance company tries hard to settle things, which benefits the people who are injured,” he said. “It saves money and gets funds to the people on the receiving end — the victims.

The Texas lawsuit claims the Reno Air Racing Association was “motivated out of a drive for profit and a disregard for safety” making it guilty of negligence. The De Treville suit also claims the association was negligent, and says the aircraft was too dangerous to fly so close to spectators.

John Murray, a Tampa, Fla., lawyer for Aero-Trans, said he filed motions to move the cases to federal court to help streamline the process.

“There will be other cases filed,” he said. “For the ease of everyone concerned, we wanted to do this in a manner that is as expeditious as it can be. If you have a bunch of cases and every lawyer wants to take depositions and do discovery, doing the same thing over and over can be very burdensome.

“It’s easier to get together and do all of those things at one time.”

The crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board and could take a year to complete. The NTSB has most of the evidence from the scene and thus the parties can’t inspect the evidence or interview the investigation team until the report is published. Because of this, the lawyers asked that the schedule be set further out.

Anthony Buzbee, Altug’s Houston-based lawyer, said he has 16 other clients who were impacted by the crash and intend to file suits, and has been in talks with 10 others. But he wants his cases heard in Texas state court.

He disputes the claim by Reno Air Racing officials that Texas courts don’t have jurisdiction. The association has numerous sponsors and many longterm contracts in Texas, he said. And while one of the defendants in the case, mechanic Richard Shanholtzer, is based in Texas , he said, others are in Florida, Washington and Nevada.

“There are multiple states involved in this and it has to be handled in one of them,” he said. “We’re already sending out formal requests for information. We’ll aggressively pursue the case.”

The question of venue will be left to the judges, he said.