HOUSTON – A Texas appeals court panel has reversed a lower court’s refusal to transfer a negligence lawsuit from Harris County to Williamson County.
Honeywell International Inc., and Debbie Brethower, defendants in a lawsuit over an airplane crash, asked that the case be moved out of Harris County because none of the events that are the subject of the suit occurred there. The plane both took off and crashed in Williamson County, they said.
The trial court judge denied the motion.
The Texas First District Court of Appeals overturned that ruling Aug. 20, holding that that the plaintiffs in the negligence suit “have not put forth prima facie evidence that venue was proper” in Harris County, the panel said. Honeywell and Brethower, however, did present evidence that Williamson County was a proper venue for the case.
“We thus hold that the trial court erred in denying appellants’ motions to transfer venue to Williamson County,” the court ruled.
The case involved the 2016 crash of a Rockwell 690B Commander airplane owned by Mickey Brethower, husband of Debbie Brethower. Mickey Brethower contracted with another pilot, flight instructor Hubert Davis, to obtain his insurance certification for single-engine maneuvers.
“The crash was violent and severe, with Mickey and Hubert dying as a result of the injuries that they sustained in the crash,” the Appeals Court said.
Brethower was “in sole possession, custody, and control” of the aircraft and he was responsible “for all maintenance, repairs, and servicing for the...[a]ircraft,” the Court said.
The lawsuit, filed by Davis’ wife Deborah Davis, and daughter Bernadine Neighbor, accused Brethower of negligence in his ownership and operation of the aircraft.
Honeywell was accused of negligence for “designing, manufacturing, and installing component parts for the aircraft,” the ruling said.
Honeywell v. Davis, Texas Court of Appeals, First District, 01-19-00013-CV