ARTICLE I SECTION 1 of the California Constitution reads:
ALL people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.
On Jun 30, 2017, Pisano infringed these inalienable rights to which I was entitled under this constitution.
I was one of several motorists who Pisano struck. My vehicle was struck the hardest, spun around 360 degrees within about a second and was slammed into the right retaining wall. I'm guessing Pisano's plane struck my vehicle at over 100 MPH. I thought I was going to be
crushed alive. I also thought my vehicle was going to roll over and that I was going to die that way. It's really only by the grace of God (and maybe a little bit of skill on my part) that I survived.
The vehicle was declared a total loss and although I didn't appear visibly injured at the scene, I suffered spinal injuries which are permanent to this day. Perhaps surgery can resolve what's remaining, but the surgical options I've explored so far aren't reversible and involve certain risks and tradeoffs.
I wasn't commenting so much about my injuries as the legal argument according to Mr. Pisano's attorney that people on the ground aren't entitled to any sense of safety. According to him, pilots have no duty of care toward the unsuspecting public. But judging from the slant of the previous three comments, I'm starting to get the feeling this might be the prevailing attitude amongst general aviation pilots, that if they get into trouble, then all bets are off and no one else but them matters.
One of the problems I had with Mr. Pisano was that he appeared to be refusing to provide his insurance information even to the CHP. That is, while the CHP obtained the insurance information from all the innocent motorists, they weren't able to obtain Pisano's aviation insurance information. It was eventually explained to me that there isn't actually any law requiring pilots to have airplane insurance. Therefore, the police can't enforce a law that doesn't exist.
In my view, I would have thought Mr. Pisano would have been grateful God had spared his life and would have gladly furnished this information whether or not he thought he was at fault. Not being an aviator, I actually had to do a bit of detective work to run it down and finally was able to obtain the policy information by invoking the Freedom of Information Act upon the John Wayne Airport. And even though Pisano and his family issued press releases lauding the heroism of fire captain, John Meffert who helped to effect the rescue of the Pisanos, after more than 6 weeks, no one from the Pisano family provided the insurance info even to him. Mr. Meffert even visited the Pisanos in the hospital two times just to see how they were fairing. But none of the Pisanos volunteered the info. After about a month and a half, Mr. Meffert followed up with me to obtain the insurance info.
I can't say whether or not Pisano's selfishness, indifference and cowardice is typical of pilots who crash their planes into to other people. I would certainly hope not.
But unfortunately for me, Pisano and his insurance company,
US Specialty (aka
TOKIO MARINE) have done everything they can to stonewall me at every turn even though Pisano has himself effectively admitted liability in September 2017 when I spoke to him briefly by phone and again in the deposition he gave last Friday.
Like I said before, I find it more than a little shocking that apparently, according to Mr. Montanari, Esq., he thinks that any pilots in an 'emergency' have carte-blanche to demolish other people's property and injure them permanently with impunity.
Another example of the sheer scumbag nature of Montanari, when he filed his Answer in court the First Affirmative Defense he raised was "Contributory Negligence." This is to say, that while I was using the 405 freeway exactly as intended by driving southbound toward the MacArthur exit, I was "completely barred" from any kind of recovery by virtue of this defense. Well, the fact of the matter is that California did away with the legal defense of "Contributory Negligence" around 1979 when California became a "Comparative Negligence" state. That's how much of a scumbag he is. He's raising a defense that doesn't even exist in law.
Maybe no one on this forum has any empathy for me and thinks Pisano is perfectly justified in shafting everyone who was negatively affected because he purportedly sustained an 'emergency situation.' Maybe it's like with cops and the "thin blue line." Right or wrong, they all stick together. I don't know if that's the situation here. But I'd have to ask any of you how you'd feel if someone else left you with a lot of broken pieces to pick up, how
you'd feel about it.
And on a spiritual level The Golden Rule says:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Clearly, I don't have a very high opinion of Mr. Pisano or Montanari as human beings. Even though there are evil people out there who never have to deal with the consequences of their evil deeds, every once in a while, God does pay some of these people a visit.
All Pisano has to do is say,
"Mr. Hamilton, I'm very sorry this happened. What can I do to make it right?" But, of course, Pisano's too cowardly to do what's right.
" But in reality, we're generally not super rich. Many of us have a plane instead of a boat. Many of the airplanes that we fly cost no more than what a new car costs. But, we're treated as if we're out-of-touch one-percenters.
