By Diana Novak Jones
CHICAGO (Reuters) -A jury in federal court in Chicago ordered Boeing on Wednesday to pay more than $28 million to the family of a United Nations environmental worker who was killed in the 2019 crash of a 737 MAX jet in Ethiopia.
The verdict awarded to the family of Shikha Garg is the first in the dozens of lawsuits filed in the wake of that crash and another in Indonesia in 2018, which combined killed 346 people.
Under a deal between the parties struck on Wednesday morning, Garg’s family will receive $35.85 million – the full verdict amount plus 26% interest – and Boeing will not appeal, according to attorneys for the family.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shanin Specter and Elizabeth Crawford, who represented the family, said in a statement the verdict “provides public accountability for Boeing’s wrongful conduct.”
Garg was 32 when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Nairobi, Kenya, crashed just a few minutes after takeoff, her lawyers said.
The lawsuit alleged the 737 MAX plane was defectively designed and that Boeing failed to warn passengers and the public about its dangers.
The Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed five months after Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea in Indonesia. An automated flight control system contributed to both crashes.
The U.S. planemaker has settled more than 90% of the dozens of civil lawsuits related to the two accidents, paying out billions of dollars in compensation through lawsuits, a deferred prosecution agreement and other payments, the company previously told Reuters.
On November 5, Boeing settled three lawsuits brought by the families of other victims who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, according to their attorney. The terms of those settlements were not released.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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