Sidley Secures Sweeping Victory for GE Aerospace in Product Liability Class Action

On May 22, 2026, Sidley secured a significant victory for GE Aerospace (GE) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. In this closely watched national class action that arose from a 2024 dual-engine failure involving a Bombardier Challenger 604 aircraft, Ben Nagin argued GE’s motion to compel arbitration and related motions over the course of two hearings and defeated Plaintiffs’ efforts to compel arbitration-related discovery. In a detailed 30-page opinion, the Court granted GE’s motion to compel arbitration in full, ordered all claims to arbitration on an individual, non-class basis, stayed the litigation, and administratively closed the case. This represents a significant win for GE, and reinforces the enforceability of arbitration provisions and delegation clauses in complex aviation and commercial-services agreements.

Plaintiffs Hop-A-Jet Worldwide Jet Charter, Inc.; Ace Aviation Services Corp.; and East Shore Aviation, LLC (together, Hop-A-Jet) brought a putative nationwide class action against GE and several other defendants, alleging that corrosion in GE CF34-3B engines caused the Hop-A-Jet crash in 2024, and asserting claims for negligent failure to warn, failure to inspect, and strict liability. Plaintiffs alleged that GE and its subsidiary, GE Engine Services LLC, improperly designed, inspected, maintained, and serviced the engines and failed to provide adequate maintenance guidance and service bulletins.

GE moved to compel arbitration based on two agreements governing the parties’ relationship: a 2014 General Terms Agreement (GTA) and a 2021 Engine Services Agreement (ESA), both of which contained broad arbitration provisions incorporating the American Arbitration Association’s Commercial Rules. Plaintiffs opposed on various grounds, with Plaintiffs’ counsel arguing that Plaintiffs had “never signed” any arbitration agreement, that the GTA had terminated, and that neither agreement covered their claims. On behalf of GE, Sidley demonstrated that Plaintiffs’ “never signed” argument was false, and argued that all arbitrability issues had been delegated to the arbitrator through incorporation of the AAA Commercial Rules.

In its opinion, the Court granted GE’s motion. The Court further held that non-signatory plaintiff East Shore Aviation was bound to arbitrate under equitable estoppel principles and the agreements’ assignment provisions because its claims were “intimately founded in and intertwined with” the contractual maintenance and services framework governing the aircraft’s engines. The Court also concluded that GE, as parent company to GE Engine Services, could enforce the arbitration provisions under the Eleventh Circuit’s “inherently inseparable” parent-subsidiary doctrine. Finally, the Court reprimanded Plaintiffs’ counsel for providing erroneous information to the Court and failing to correct the record promptly. The decision is significant because it enforces arbitration agreements, including against a non-signatory, in the context of a high-profile aviation accident seeking extensive relief for a putative nationwide class.

The Sidley team representing GE included Ben Nagin (New York), Ian Ross (Miami), and Tacy Flint (Chicago), as well as Kyle Tanzer (Miami), Daniel Barcia (Miami), and Maya Shair (New York).