Ind. SC: Wrongful death suit should be tried in British ColumbiaBY JESSICA M. KARMASEKINDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) – The Indiana Supreme Court said in a ruling Monday that British Columbia is an “adequate” forum for a lawsuit filed over a bizarre helicopter accident.Plaintiffs Dalmas Maurice Otieno Anyango and Jane Tinna Agola Otieno sued Bell Helicopter Textron Inc., Rolls-Royce Corp. and Honeywell International Inc. in Indiana’s Marion County Superior Court for the wrongful death of their son, 20-year-old Isaiah Omondi Otieno.Isaiah, a Kenyan citizen and student at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, British Columbia, was mailing a letter from Canada to his parents in Kenya when a helicopter flying overhead lost power.The helicopter crashed to the ground and killed him, along with the helicopter’s pilot and two passengers.In their suit, the Otienos sought to recover on theories of strict liability and negligence based on the design and manufacture of the helicopter engine and engine component parts, and on the failure to certify and recommend safe and proper replacement parts.Bell was the manufacturer of the helicopter. Its engine was manufactured in Indiana by the Allison Division of General Motors, which sold its assets to a company that was later purchased by Rolls-Royce. The helicopter’s engine components were designed at Honeywell’s facility in Indiana and then manufactured in North Carolina.Representatives of the three other people killed in the accident sued the defendants and others in British Columbia on similar theories.Soon after, the companies filed both a motion to dismiss the Otienos’ suit and a stipulation that they would submit to the personal jurisdiction of and waive any statute of limitations defenses in British Columbia.The Marion Superior Court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss in favor of [...]