Estate of Warren ear surgeon reaches $15M settlement

The doctor’s estate will divide more than $8.6 million.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — The estate of a renowned Warren ear surgeon, who was piloting his own plane when it crashed in 2003, has been settled for $15 million.

The estate of Dr. Franklin M. Rizer, administered by his sister Dr. Melisa Rizer of Columbus, settled its wrongful death claim Thursday. The case was before Judge Thomas A. Swift of Trumbull County Probate Court.

According to the judge’s settlement entry, $6 million goes to the attorneys along with $351,812 for their expenses. The estate is represented by Warren attorney Charles Richards and Cleveland attorney Jamie R. Lebovitz.

Dr. Rizer was killed March 20, 2003, while on an instrument approach to Runway 17 of Leesburg Executive Airport in Leesburg, Va.

Defendants in the lawsuit were Mooney Aircraft Co. and Mooney Aerospace Group, designer and manufacturer of the aircraft; Honeywell International Inc.; Honeywell General Aviation Business Corp.; Honeywell Business; and Winner Aviation.

The amount each company will pay the estate isn’t being made public, according to an agreement by the attorneys involved.

According to Judge Swift’s entry, the net proceeds of the estate, or $8,634,572, will be divided by the court later.

Money will be paid to Dr. Melisa Rizer; Maria Rizer of Warren, the ear surgeon’s wife; Kaylin Rizer Allshouse of Columbus, his niece; and the estate of Wanda Mae Rizer, his mother.

According to the estate’s 2005 wrongful death lawsuit, Winner provided maintenance and repair and Honeywell designed, made and sold avionics systems and flight instrumentation for the aircraft.

According to a document filed with the court, Dr. Rizer had 786 hours of flight time. He purchased the aircraft directly from Mooney in Kerrville, Texas, about Dec. 11, 2002.

According to the lawsuit, the estate claimed that Mooney misrepresented the aircraft’s condition as new when it had about 40 hours of flying time.

The document said that before the purchase and delivery by Mooney while at the factory, the aircraft sustained an “overvoltage event” in which electrical components were affected.

Immediately after the delivery of the plane to Dr. Rizer, it “suffered a continuous stream of avionics and other instrumentation failures during the operation of the aircraft” from Texas to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport.

From the time after delivery and until the crash, the document said, Dr. Rizer had problems with the plane.

The craft was turned over to Dr. Rizer in March 2003 by Winner. He was assured his aircraft was repaired and airworthy, the complaint states.

That same day, Dr. Rizer flew out of the Youngstown-Warren airport to Leesburg where he planned to attend a medical conference. The plane crashed into a residential area.

yovich@vindy.com