The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling in favor of a rural electric cooperative in a plane crash in Grundy County.
The family of Max Morrison appealed a unanimous jury verdict that the Grundy County Rural Electric Cooperative acted negligently — but its negligence did not cause the plane crash in November of 2012 that led to Morrison’s death. The plane piloted by William Konicek hit electrical wires on power poles and crashed as it tried to land on what had been a grass airstrip.
Konicek died in the crash and Morrison later died from severe burns. The family argued legal errors kept the jury from finding the co-op at fault. But the Court of Appeals found the district court properly instructed the jury on the co-op’s scope of liability and upheld the verdict.