Supreme Court rejects untimely appeal in air crash lawsuit

DOVER, Del. – Delaware’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal in a lawsuit stemming from a 2012 airplane crash in the Congo that claimed the life of the chief adviser to that country’s president and left his finance minister seriously injured.

The companies that purchased, owned and managed the jet sued aircraft manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, claiming the crash, which also killed four others, was caused by failure of the jet’s braking system.

A Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit in February, saying the plaintiffs’ claims for economic losses were barred and that claims of fraud were conclusory because there was no evidence that the brakes were defective.

The Supreme Court dismissed the plaintiffs’ notice of appeal last week because it was received too late, having first been filed mistakenly in Superior Court.