My attys have told me you can't release liability
    for anyone else -- not even for a spouse, who can
    still file after someone's demise. It only means you
    won't sue.

    You can indemify, defend and hold harmless against
    third party claims -- provided you (or your estate)
    has the assets to fund such a defense and pay any
    resulting claims.

    Scott Gettings

    Does anybody have factual information on a case where some one
    successfully sued someone for an alleged defective experimental
    aircraft? I don't think such a case exist.


    Paul Lamar


I don't have Lexus/Nexus access, but there sure is a lot of legal activity out there if there were no suits:

Scott Gettings

My first reaction is "I do and there ain't;" but, I do know there is one
federal case out there out of Texas saying that "non-experimental" aircraft
would have a hard time disclaiming liability for design, where they
admittedly had disclaimed pretty much all other type of liability for their
negligence in manufacture and workmanship. Now, while I would suggest the
"non-experimental" wording should be enough to indicate that would not apply
even to design defects in these kind of situations, much less workmanship
errors, obviously there can never be a guarantee of no suits.

If you can sue the president for alleged peccadillo's and, perhaps even as
the old saw indicates, the pope for bastardy, perhaps while you can do so,
you have to realize the odds of prevailing are not as good in the pope's
case (in this day and age) and probably even less where someone has
purchased a wrecked experimental aircraft with sufficient intent to release
and/or indemnify any/all prior workmen from any liability. Especially as the
thing would have to be rebuilt before use, so you will have to face the
obvious proof question of how you gonna prove who done what and/that caused
what? I can almost promise you that you are probably not going to find any
plaintiff's lawyer willing to do such a suit on a contingent fee.

And, perhaps even more, especially, with a rather evil handling little
aircraft like a Seahawk based machine, one of which I already own and am
slowly working a rotary into. <g>  Therefore, having bought and sold
experimentals, I can assure you I have made a pretty good attempt to look
for and/or eliminate such liability problems.

And, to further search all fifty states and all federal circuits further to
find the absence of any such case law would be a rather extensive task,
which I would not want to do for free.  Now, if any of you good folks out
there want to pay for such a search, we can talk further. <g> I would
suggest to you that Paul is probably right.

Scott: You may also want to read Kolczynski's stuff in his aviation law page
and in avweb's page rather than just to refer to them to simply further
confirm that Paul is probably correct. They all seem to agree that while
there have been some suits, none of which were apparently appealed
sufficiently to make much for appellate case review record reporting, not
one seems to have prevailed; and, that is where something is sold as a
flying aircraft, not someone's obviously defective (at least, one you know
is not flying very well when purchased) wreck.

jofarr, soddy tn