Travelers Insurance Company v. Harry L. Riggs, Jr. Mabel v. Reid

JAMES DICKSON PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge:

After paying a property damage claim arising from an airplane’s crash into the home of its insured, Travelers Insurance Company (Travelers) brought this diversity action, as subrogee, against the owner of the plane and the estate of its deceased pilot. A jury found for the defendants, and Travelers appealed, assigning as error the district court’s order compelling its substitution for.the insured as the named plaintiff; the court’s refusal, following Virginia law, to give a res ipsa loquitur instruction; its refusal to find the pilot negligent per se when…