INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) - In a decision hinging upon the ancient concept of bailment, an Indiana appeals court ruled the estate of a man killed in the crash of a helicopter he was working on must pay for the loss of the aircraft.
Drake Air handed over possession of a Brantly B2-B helicopter to mechanic Gerald Goldsberry in Mooresville, Ind. in 2020. Goldsberry was known as “Mr. Brantly” because he had “all the parts” for Brantly helicopters nationwide and worked with the assistance of two other men, although they weren’t paid employees.
Those two men worked on the helicopter and then Goldsberry took it up for a test flight. The engine quit and the copter crashed, with Goldsberry stating it had “lost power” before he died. The National Transportation Safety Board was unable to determine the cause of the crash.
Drake Air sued Goldsberry’s estate for the $50,000 loss of the helicopter. A trial court ruled in favor of Drake Air, citing the fact the helicopter was delivered to Goldsberry in good working order for routine maintenance and his estate failed to provide evidence to overcome the presumption his negligence was to blame for the crash.
The estate appealed but the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in a Feb. 5 decision by Judge Paul D. Mathias. Goldsberry’s estate argued Indiana law states a bailment exists when someone takes possession of another person’s goods “such as to exclude both the owner of the property and others.” Two non-employees worked on the helicopter in violation of the rule requiring “others” to be excluded, the estate argued.
Not so, the appeals court said.
“The requirement is only that the bailee have the right to exclude all persons not covered by the agreement and to control the property,” the court concluded. Whether the two men were employees “is beside the point,” since Drake Air contracted with Goldsberry to perform maintenance and prior history showed he had worked with them in the past.
The appeals court also rejected arguments Drake Air had failed to prove Goldsberry was negligent. That doesn’t matter in a case of bailment, the court said.
“The evidence before the trial court supports its conclusion that the helicopter went from being an airworthy vehicle at the time Drake Air delivered it to not being an airworthy vehicle while it was in Goldsberry’s possession and control,” the court said.