Aeronautics: Infancy

At 10 a.m., Oct. 7, 1929, the Miami-Biltmore Hotel in Miami was sold at auction. One Alfred J. Richey, Manhattan real estate dealer, wished to attend the sale. He contracted to pay $650 for airplane transport from Roosevelt Field, L.I. to Miami. The plane landed at Jacksonville and Alfred J. Richey reached Miami by train five hours late. He thereupon stopped payment on a $500 check which he had given Roosevelt Flying Corp.

Roosevelt Field, Inc. sued him. He filed a countersuit for the $900,000 which he claimed to have lost by not reaching the sale promptly. In his suit, he charged that the plane had been forced down at Jacksonville owing to a defective compass, an inexperienced pilot, and that, even without these handicaps, it would have been incapable of flying to Miami in 14 hours. Roosevelt Field, Inc. last week asked the court for permission to change the name of the defendant in Passenger Richey's suit to Roosevelt Flying Corp. which operated his plane; claimed that Roosevelt Field, Inc. had been released from all liability in connection with the trip; and that "aviation, being in its infancy, is subject to various delays, including adverse weather, and subject to many acts of God which cannot be controlled." The court reserved decision.