In re Air Crash Disaster
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
86 F.3d 498 (1996)
After an MD-80 aircraft operated by Northwest Airlines (plaintiff) and manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (MD) (defendant) crashed, killing everyone aboard, Northwest sought to introduce three categories of evidence against MD: its own post-crash rewiring of its MD-80 fleet (allegedly showing the original wiring was defective), evidence that Honeywell had made pre-crash repairs to similar equipment on other MD aircraft (to impeach an MD witness's testimony that the equipment was safe), and internal MD debate over recommending backup checks on a warning system implicated in an earlier crash; the trial court excluded all three categories and ruled for MD, and Northwest appealed.
Whether Federal Rule of Evidence 407, which excludes evidence of subsequent remedial measures to encourage safety improvements, bars evidence of the plaintiff's own post-accident remedial work, and how the rule applies to related impeachment and pre-accident evidence.