MH370-related petition dismissed

PETALING JAYA: A US court has dismissed a petition filed against Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Boeing Company seeking to obtain evidence of possible design and manufacturing defects in connection with the disappearance of MH370 on March 8.
In a statement to the Bursa Malaysia today, MAS said that the petition by a law firm was on behalf of one of the 227 passengers aboard the plane.
"We have been advised that the said petition has been dismissed by order of the US Court," MAS said.
Last week, MAS announced that the petition was a request through the courts for information.
Boeing is the aircraft manufacturer of the plane which disappeared from the radar system about an hour after taking off from KLIA at 12.41am that day.
Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has said that the government is ready to face any lawsuit with regard to the ill-fated flight.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Cook County Judge Kathy Flanagan also threatened to impose sanctions against Ribbeck Law Chartered citing previous instances where the Chicago-based law firm had "improperly brought" petitions, such as last year's Asiana Airlines plane crash in San Francisco.
"Despite these orders, the same law firm has proceeded, yet again, with the filing of the instant petition, knowing full well that there is no basis to do so," said Flanagan.
"Should this law firm choose to do so, the court will impose sanctions on its own motion," she said.
Ribbeck Law last week had submitted the first-filed legal action arising from the plane tragedy saying it sought documents from the two companies concerning employees as well as sales and lease agreements, among other things.
The firm said at the time it expected to represent families of more than half of the passengers onboard the missing flight, which may have crashed in the remote southern Indian Ocean with all 239 on board presumed dead.
Several US aviation lawyers and experts called the Ribbeck filing premature and a publicity stunt, since the details of the plane's disappearance were still largely unknown.
Justin Green, a lawyer with competitor aviation law firm, Kreindler & Kreindler, said the filing was "nothing short of outrageous".
"Without plane wreckage, victims' bodies and any substantial evidence of cause or potential motive, there is simply no way to determine liability at this point in the investigation, and any legal counsel should recognise that," he said in a statement on Monday.
Ribbeck lawyer Mervin Mateo said in an interview he had not yet reviewed Flanagan's ruling but that the firm would not be deterred in its attempts to bring lawsuits against MAS and Boeing.
Mateo told said last week the firm had its own experts doing investigations of the Malaysian crash.