Opinion ID: 3195507
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Type Certification As Support for Field

Text: Preemption Appellees also assert that because type certificates represent the FAA’s determination that a design meets federal safety standards, allowing juries to impose tort liability notwithstanding the presence of a type certificate would infringe upon the field of aviation safety as defined in Abdullah and would fatally undermine uniformity in the federal regulatory regime. Appellees’ Br. 44-45 (quoting City of Burbank, 411 U.S. at 639). In support of this argument, Appellees rely on Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., 552 U.S. 312 (2008), in which state tort claims were deemed preempted by an express preemption clause where the plaintiff challenged the safety of a medical device that had received preapproval from the Food and Drug Administration. Id. at 330. Although there is no express preemption clause here, Appellees posit that the FAA’s type certification process should be accorded a similar field preemptive effect. The FAA, on the other hand, argues that type certification is relevant only to an analysis under “ordinary U.S. at 62-65. Because the Court has been willing to apply conflict rather than field preemption even in situations where an express preemption clause is at play, conflict preemption appears especially apt in a case like this one where there is no such clause to counsel in favor of field preemption. 44 conflict preemption principles.” 18 FAA Ltr. Br. 2. Thus, according to the FAA, “[i]t is . . . only where compliance with both the type certificate and the claims made in the state tort suit ‘is a physical impossibility[]’; or where the claim ‘stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress,’ that the type certificate will serve to preempt a state tort suit.” Id. at 10 (first quoting Fla. Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc., 373 U.S. at 142-43; then quoting Geier, 529 U.S. at 873). This, the FAA contends, strikes the right balance in the interests of federalism because: to the extent that a plaintiff challenges an aspect of an aircraft’s design that was expressly approved by the FAA as shown on the type certificate, accompanying operating limitations, underlying type certificate data sheet, or other form of FAA approval incorporated by reference into those materials, a plaintiff’s state tort suit arguing for an alternative design would be preempted under conflict preemption principles . . . . because a manufacturer is bound to manufacture its aircraft or aircraft part in compliance with the type certificate. Id. at 10-11. On the other hand, “to the extent that the FAA has not made an affirmative determination with respect to the challenged design aspect, and the agency has left that design 18 Even with regard to those claims not preempted by conflict preemption, the FAA contends that a federal standard of care should apply. FAA Ltr. Br. 11. For the reasons set forth above, we have rejected that contention. See supra Part