News

Victory Before the Ninth Circuit Court

Attorneys David Ledger and Elyze McDonald of the Guam office came out victorious in an appeal before the Ninth Circuit Court in Americopters, LLC v. Federal Aviation Administration, 2006 WL 700778 (9thh Cir. Mar. 21, 2006). Mr. Ledger and Ms. McDonald represented two aviation clients, Jan's Helicopter Service, Inc. and Americopters LLC against the FAA, after both companies had their aircrafts grounded in separate incidents. (Jan's owns a de Havilland Caribou plane used to transport helicopters that are rented or leased for commercial fishery operations; Americopters runs a helicopter tour business.) After issuing the grounding orders, the FAA refused to entertain administrative appeals of the grounding orders, and even denied that any orders had been issued. As the Court put it in an opinion authored by Margaret McKeown (with Richard Clifton and Myron Bright of the Eighth Circuit on the panel), the FAA essentially kept Jan's and Americopters in a "bureaucratic roadblock" by placing both companies in a "procedural limbo netherworld."

Meanwhile, Jan's and Americopters could not operate and subsequently lost out on business opportunities. Jan's and Americopters each filed suits in the U.S. District Court of Guam, seeking rescission of the orders and damages under constitutional due process claims. The District Court dismissed the lawsuits for lack of jurisdiction.

On a consolidated appeal, the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court's dismissals based on lack of jurisdiction. However, it remanded the action so that Jan's and Americopters may pursue damages for loss of busines opportunities based on their constitutional due process claims.

The opinion is engaging, and its outcome benefits Americopters and Jan's and rewards all who contributed to the presentation of the appellate arguments.