Leases

[...]the plaintiff failed to argue that a multi-step transaction occurred as follows: 1) Wells Fargo assigned the lease and its security interest in the equipment to Mr. Blanken; 2) upon execution of the Second Amendment, the lessee, as economic owner, effectively transferred its ownership interest in the equipment to Mr. Blanken; and 3) Mr. Blanken, as owner of the equipment, then leased it to the lessee. [...]rather than applying the Graves Amendment, the court analyzed a different federal statute, the Federal Aviation Act ("FAA").72 The plaintiffs brought a claim for negligence against Airbus Helicopters SAS, the manufacturer of a helicopter, and Nevada Helicopter Leasing LLC ("Nevada Leasing"), the owner of the helicopter.73 Nathan Cline was the helicopter pilot and was employed by Helicopter Consultants of Maui, Inc., doing business as Blue Hawaii Helicopters ("Blue Hawaii"), the lessee of the helicopter.74 On November 10, 2011, Mr. Cline was piloting the helicopter when it crashed on the Island of Molokai, fatally injuring Mr. Cline and all passengers.75 The estate of Mr. Cline brought suit against the above defendants.76 Nevada Leasing argued that the state tort law claims are preempted by the Act.77 The court held that "[t]he plain language of the . . . the Federal Aviation Act states that owners and lessors of aircraft cannot be held liable for personal injury, death, and property damages unless the secured party, owner, or lessor was 'in the actual possession or control' of the aircraft. [...]case law develops, lenders and buyers of such electronic equipment leases will be left to speculate whether such systems do in fact reliably establish the secured party as the person to which the chattel paper was assigned. [...]a recent California bankruptcy case, In re Mayfield,99 raised some unfounded concerns regarding electronic chattel paper.