Trial opens in Flight 1420 lawsuit

— Because of the head injuries he suffered in the 1999 crash of American Airlines Flight 1420, and the post-traumatic stress that has followed, Joe Rustenhaven's professional life is over at 62, his attorneys and his wife said Tuesday on the opening day of a federal damages lawsuit.

His attorney, Bob Bodoin of Fort Worth, told the eight-member jury that Rustenhaven, of Maumelle, is due a compensatory award of up to $15 million,

The trial is the fifth crash trial to go before District Judge Henry Woods, who wants the two dozen or so remaining cases to be tried or settled before summer's end.

Rustenhaven's wife of 42 years, Mary, is seeking compensation for "loss of consortium." Woods said he would define that for the jury later, but the complaint means the couple is no longer sexually intimate.

In opening statements, Spence Fricke, one of American's attorneys, did not dispute that Rustenhaven was injured or argue against the consortium claim. But Fricke said that Rustenhaven's injuries are far less than those claimed in the lawsuit.

Rustenhaven was transferring to Arkansas to work at BEI Technologies Inc., a California aerospace concern with an office in Maumelle, when Flight 1420 crashed in a midnight thunderstorm June 1, 1999. The pilot and 10 passengers died.

Two weeks later, Rustenhaven and his wife moved to Arkansas. Joe Rustenhaven tried to return to work, his wife testified, but within weeks felt overwhelmed. His wife said he couldn't sleep and was worried he'd lose the job he'd moved halfway across the United States to take.

"He's not the same person he was," she said, adding that Rustenhaven can no longer operate the television's remote control or the microwave oven, even though she painted red fingernail polish on the buttons to help him remember how to turn the machines on.

Her husband was not in the courtroom to see her cry or hear her testify that they had to buy a king-sized bed because he thrashes so much in his nightmares.

American plans to offer evidence that Rustenhaven was treated for depression a year before the crash, that he was an insomniac then and had already lost interest in sex.

That defense could be tricky: American has presented evidence in past trials contending that people afflicted with depression are more susceptible to further depression if they encounter trauma.

Rustenhaven was in seat 22B, just a few rows behind where the jet broke open and burned. His head was gashed by a briefcase that fell from an overhead compartment, and his face was deeply bruised by other flying debris.

His wife testified Rustenhaven has been plagued with headaches since the crash, and avoids the telephone almost completely, except to converse with his elderly mother, who still lives in California.

Rustenhaven's relationship with his mother may be a factor in the trial. American is expected to contend Rustenhaven has "factitious disease," an ailment in which a person finds comfort in being ill and being tended, as a mother tends a child. The disorder is not unlike hypochondria, but it has a relationship factor, too.

Rustenhaven's lawyers say he has become antisocial and childlike, that he has dined out only three times since the crash, that he has virtually no memory skills now.

Mary Rustenhaven testified that he once did 50 pushups each weekday morning, but that now his only physical activity is mowing the grass three times a week, whether it needs it or not.

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