|
Schaden Katzman Lampert & McClune |
| About The Firm | |
Attorney Profiles | |
Our Cases | |
Contact Us |
| About Aviation Law | Aviation Links | Frequently Asked Questions | Home | ||||||
|
||||||
|
|
Attorney Profiles 
John D. McCluneAviation Accident Lawyer Aviation accident lawyer John McClune brings a background of applied mathematics to aviation/product liability cases. After high school, Mr. McClune attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from which he graduated in 1991 magna cum laude with a BBA. At Western, he minored in applied mathematics and took industrial design engineering courses. During this period, Mr. McClune volunteered time to Kalamazoo's Air Museum, where his interest in aviation began. Immediately following his undergraduate studies, Mr. McClune attended Wayne State University School of Law in Detroit and became a clerk with the Firm. Upon graduation from law school, he joined the Firm while continuing his studies in piloting and mathematics/engineering. Representing the estates of deceased pilots/passengers, Mr. McClune has successfully litigated exceptions to The General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 (GARA), 49 U.S.C. § 40101, Note. See generally Hinkle v. The Cessna Aircraft Co., 2004 WL 2413768 (Mich. App. Oct. 28, 2004). He was the brief writer in one of the early GARA cases, Wright v. Bond Air, Ltd., 930 F. Supp. 300, 305 (E.D. Mich. 1996) ("GARA does not create a federal cause of action. Rather, GARA is a statute of repose and merely serves a gatekeeping function for Plaintiff’s state law cause of action. There is nothing in GARA’s legislative history to support an argument that Congress intended GARA to create a body of federal common law. Nor does the Act preempt a state’s substantive law regarding negligence or breach of warranty claims.") Mr. McClune was also a brief writer in the seminal GARA case, Rickert v. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., 929 F.Supp. 380 (D.Wyo. 1996), and continues his fight to declare the statute unconstitutional. His legal briefs in these and other GARA cases, unpublished by official reporters, have been routinely published in the national Andrews Aviation Litigation Reporter. In Old Republic v. Durango Air Service et al, Mr. McClune teamed up with Bruce A. Lampert and represented the plaintiffs in a wrongful death action arising from a general aviation aircraft crash near Bayfield, Colorado. In 2002, the Tenth Circuit ruled that pursuant to the plain language of an Old Republic aviation insurance policy, the non-passenger survivors were not limited by the $100,000 per person limitation, but rather the $1 million per occurrence applied. See Old Republic, 283 F.3d 1222 (10th Cir. 2002). The court also ruled that under a separate policy provision, Old Republic's duty of indemnification was $1 million. This was a major win for airplane accident victims and their families. Mr. McClune has also had a significant impact on highly technical legal issues involving multi-district aviation litigation, including the legal theories and arguments advanced in the air disasters of TWA Flight 800, Comair Flight 3272, USAir Flight 427, and United Airlines Flight 585, several times breaking new legal ground. He has been successful in defeating attempts by foreign manufacturers of aircraft/aircraft components and foreign operators of aircraft to avoid jurisdiction here in the United States. Mr. McClune has lectured across the country on current legal issues in aviation law and edits the Firm's newsletter, Aviation Law Notes. In June, 2006, he was asked to speak about GARA at the American Bar Association, Aviation Litigation Committee CLE Seminar in New York. He authored an article Entitled "A Primer on Case Law Interpreting the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994, 49 U.S.C.A. § 40101, Note ("GARA"), published at the ABA Seminar. In 2005, he was a speaker at the State Bar of Georgia, Aviation Law Section, presenting a legal brief and presentation explaining why GARA is unconstitutional. He co-authored an article with Richard Schaden entitled "GARA Equals Shield Not Sword; A Plaintiff's Perspective" and also co-authored an article with David Katzman entitled "Preparation for a General Aviation Product Liability Action; A Plaintiff's Perspective," published by the ABA. Mr. McClune has recently authored a paper on the lack of preemption in general aviation accident cases. His legal writing and research skills led him to be chosen as an amicus curiae brief writer for the Michigan Trial Lawyers’ Association. Mr. McClune is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, Michigan Trial Lawyers Association, American Trial Lawyers’ Association, and former member of the Oakland County Bar Association, Macomb County Bar Association, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice. He is presently involved in several groundbreaking legal challenges in emerging areas of aviation law. Our aviation accident lawyers, engineers, and flight specialists have an in-house technological edge in reconstructing accidents and determining their causes by utilizing the latest technologies. We represent our clients through in-depth, legal and technical analysis and extensive research involving aeronautical design, manufacturing techniques, and the applied sciences. |
