Woman, 2 daughters claim post-crash stress in Flight 1420 lawsuit

By ANDREA HARTER

LITTLE ROCK — Contending that the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420 traumatized them for life, a Benton woman and her two little girls opened their damages lawsuit against the airline Monday. Their lawyer told the jury they deserved $18 million in compensation.

The federal jury of five women and two men heard snippets of what Stephanie Manus' life has been like since she plowed through the wreckage with her daughters, Emily and Lauren, then 2 and 4 years old, and stepped out of the burning jet that had overrun the runway just before midnight June 1, 1999. The crash at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, killed 11.

Jurors also heard from the girls' preschool teacher and the videotaped testimony of two doctors.

The teacher testified for just 10 minutes. That was not the original plan, but Manus' lead attorney, Ted Boswell of Bryant, became ill after opening arguments and left the courtroom.

Boswell told the jurors in opening arguments that the children suffer from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder because they don't have enough life experience to deal with the emotions that follow a plane crash. He said Stephanie Manus is consumed by "what if" scenarios about how her children could have been killed.

"They cannot get away from the effects of it," Boswell said.

Katherine Staton, an American attorney, said the company "deeply regrets the accident" and does not dispute that Stephanie Manus has post-traumatic stress disorder, but argued that it was not debilitating for life.

American has accepted responsibility for the crash. What's in dispute is how much money the Manuses are due for their pain and suffering and their physical injuries.

Staton suggested that would be $1 million or less.

This is the fourth Flight 1420 case to go to trial before U.S. District Judge Henry Woods. Juries have awarded Kristen Maddox $11 million, Anna Lloyd $6.5 million and Nancy Chu $5.7 million.

Staton described the Manus girls as "bright and energetic" and said they had rebounded from their crash experience with little emotional scarring.

Manus' attorneys acknowledged that the girls have good days, and that Lauren, now a first-grader, is making good grades. But Boswell said one reminder -- the smell of something burning, a clap of thunder -- zaps the girls back to the night of the crash.

He said they are plagued by nightmares, too.

The teacher, Penny Fluger, director of Zion Lutheran Preschool, taught Lauren for two years and now teaches Emily. She described both girls as bright and personable and said Lauren did not have any anxiety on field trips, which runs counter to the trauma contention.

But Fluger did say Lauren was preoccupied with the loss of her Baby Susie, which burned on the plane.

"She was very upset about the loss of that doll. Stephanie brought her several more that year, but she would just throw them aside," Fluger said.

Stephanie Manus is married to a Federal Express driver, Jimmy Manus. Lauren's feelings about the doll have been the couple's primary worry since the crash. The first-grader is not expected to testify, but her mother plans to tell about Lauren taking flowers to the cemetery for Baby Susie.

Dr. Steven Snyder, who treated Stephanie Manus in the days after the crash, testified that a scan showed she had what was likely a small liver laceration, in addition to a rash and general anxiety. Later, he treated her for back pain, then referred her to a specialist for pain in a knee.

Snyder, a general practitioner, admitted he had little knowledge of what to expect from a crash survivor.

Orthopedic surgeon Herbert Hahn testified that the muscles of Manus' left knee were rubbery and that he had shaved some bone fragments off the joint.

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