A Washington federal judge on Thursday decided which evidence can be used in the upcoming Nov. 3 trial of LOT Polish Airlines’ lawsuit against Boeing, a high-stakes case accusing the aerospace titan of misleading the carrier into leasing defective 737 Max jets — aircraft later grounded worldwide after two fatal crashes that killed more than 300 people.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez granted LOT permission to use congressional testimony in which Boeing executives admitted the company made “mistakes,” along with an internal whistleblower complaint from a former Boeing engineer. Jurors will also see portions of critical reports from a U.S. House committee and the Federal Aviation Administration on the troubled jet.
However, the judge refused to let LOT introduce accident reports from the 2018 Lion Air and 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crashes, saying, “there is a real risk of undue prejudice in diving into the details.”
Boeing’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement on the Table — Partially
Judge Martinez ruled that LOT can refer to Boeing’s 2021 deferred prosecution agreement and 2025 nonprosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, both tied to the government’s criminal probe into the 737 Max. But he restricted LOT from submitting the entire documents, noting that their inclusion would “confuse the jury” and prove “cumulative or unnecessary.”
The court will decide on excerpts case by case during trial.
LOT will also be allowed to use evidence from a U.S. House committee report and an FAA-commissioned review, which Boeing had dismissed as biased. The judge found Boeing’s objections too vague, remarking that its attacks lacked “specifics or substantiation.”
