Intentional Torts | Civil Liability

Intentional torts are all “acts” while negligence may consist of either an act or an omission. Some intentional torts are also crimes under federal, state, or local law, and may also be FAR violations. In such a case, the wrongdoer may be not only subject to a fine or imprisonment in a criminal action, but also ordered to pay compensation to the victim in a civil tort action, and fined or subjected to certificate suspension or revocation by the FAA or other federal and state regulatory agencies, all for the same misbehavior. The courts have generally held that this is not double jeopardy, which is prohibited by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, interpreting that provision only to prohibit the government from criminally penalizing a person twice for the same misdeed.

For example, state criminal charges including 110 counts of murder and 110 counts of manslaughter (one of each for each person killed in the crash) were filed against SabreTech, Inc., an airline maintenance contractor that shipped highly flammable oxygen canisters that were improperly packaged and not identified as hazardous material and that caused an in-flight fire, and against several of its employees in connection with the 1996 ValuJet DC-9 crash in the Florida Everglades, a crash that also gave rise to extensive civil litigation and FAA enforcement action. The state criminal action was ultimately settled for a $500,000 fine.

Meanwhile, a federal grand jury indictment charged SabreTech with several criminal violations of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act in connection with the crash. In that case, the trial judge sentenced SabreTech to pay $2 million in criminal penalties and $9 million in restitution to victim’s families (over and above the civil settlements already reached). This was the first time an aviation business was convicted of criminal charges arising out of a commercial jet airliner crash in the U.S., and some legal analysts suspect that the fine would have been much larger if the company had not already been in bankruptcy at the time. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the $9 million portion of the sentence for restitution.

In the civil (tort) action, SabreTech and its insurers paid out some $262 million in settlements to the families of the victims. 

In addition, the FAA initiated a $2.23 million civil penalty action against SabreTech for related FAR violations. The company settled that case by a compromise agreement to pay the FAA $1.75 million.