Like the rest of us, you think you've had it bad traveling by air, and you've probably said to yourself, “If only I were rich and could charter my own plane, life would be trouble free.”
Not so fast.
Consider the nightmare of Gregory L. Dillion, a Corona del Mar man who paid $26,028 for round trip airfare from McCall, Idaho to Miami, Florida.
(That $26,028 is not a misprint.)
]
In August 2009, Dillion–a partner at Newmeyer & Dillion in
Newport Beach–took his family to Idaho on vacation when one of the
firm's largest clients requested “a very important business meeting in
Miami.”
Dillion, who represents real estate developers, didn't want to take a $1,000 commercial flight
so he had one of his assistants charter and him a luxury, eight-seat jet
for the trip. He had specific instructions that he had to arrive at
Miami International Airport in time to check into a hotel, shower and
prepare for this critical 9 a.m. meeting. The charter service, RD Air Service, agreed they would pick him up at 9 p.m. the night before and, after re-fueling in Tulsa, land in Miami by 5:30 a.m.
But
Dillion claims his chartered jet took another job in Las Vegas and
didn't pick him up at McCall's airport. Not only was pilot Jeffery Otis Nostrom
four hours late, he flew to Boise's airport, making Dillion drive
almost three hours to get there. He landed in Miami at 10:30 a.m.
How did the lawyer react?
Yes,
he's seeking damages from the charter service because he paid a
“premium” price for excellent service and ended up “extremely
embarrassed” by showing up late for a key business meeting, according to
suit filed this week in Orange County Superior Court.
Dillion
wouldn't have chartered the jet if he'd known RD Air “would not be able
to fulfill its promises,” the suit alleges. He claims the
company–which is based in Gainesville, Florida–is “guilty of
oppression, fraud, malice and reckless and despicable conduct.”
RD Air Services has not yet filed a legal reply.
(Dillion's firm employs Republican Van Tran, the former Little Saigon state Assemblyman who lost a 2010 race to unseat Orange County's lone Democrat in Congress, Loretta Sanchez.)
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.