Articles Posted in Civil Matter

As reported in the St. Charles Herald Guide in August 2009, two separate plane crashes occurred less than 24 hours apart. Both happened on private air strips, involved experienced pilots, and occurred while the planes were still on the ground.

The first crash was on August 23rd. James F. Miller was undergoing pilot re-certification at St. Charles Parish airport in Ama. Miller and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Wendell Lee Collins were on board when the plane veered left in takeoff, struck a tree, and was engulfed in flames. Both men were killed.

The other accident was the following afternoon in Taft when the plane of Lucien Taft Triche flipped over as he taxied down a private runway. Triche had been working on his plane and was taking it out for a test run. When the plane flipped Triche rolled out and was trapped under the wing. He was taken to the hospital with broken bones.

The son of a woman who died in her Bastrop apartment last September has filed a civil lawsuit seeking “damages for the fear, pain and ultimate death of his mother and the grief and mental anguish he experienced from her death,” according to reports from the Monroe News-Star.

The victim, Merrimac Ellis, died from injuries she suffered in the fire while she was trapped in her power wheelchair. The petition claims that the management of her apartment in the complex for seniors negligently failed to resolve “unreasonably dangerous conditions” that were the cause of Ellis’ death. In addition to seeking damages from the Bond House apartment complex and its insurance underwriter, Ellis’ son is also seeking to recover from the manufacturer of her power wheelchair and the companies maintaining the fire alarm and sprinkler systems at the complex.

The petition asserts that Delta Fire Protection Systems Inc. failed to “maintain sprinkler heads” and that Vantronics Security System of Monroe, Inc. failed to “maintain an audible alarm.” Neither the sprinkler system nor the fire alarm properly responded to the fire that claimed the victim’s life.