Farmers & Merchants Bank v. Ranger Insurance

Jordan, Presiding Judge.

This is an action by the owner and lienholder of an aircraft against an insurer to recover for the loss in a crash on June 27, 1970. The plaintiffs appeals a summary judgment for the insurer.

The facts are stipulated and undisputed. The named insured, John C. Loftin, was operating the aircraft at the time of the loss, and was carrying a passenger. He held a student pilot certificate, and under Federal Aviation Regulation § 61.73 (a) (1), a student pilot may not act as *167pilot in command of an aircraft carrying a passenger.

The presence of a passenger had no causal…