European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 28, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes wednesday May 28.1bb6 it merits Vieve on on Washington a the supreme court asked the Reagan administration tuesday Lor its View on whether defense contractors May be forced to dam Ages for on duty accidents involving members of the Mili tary. The court wants to know what Justice department Law yers think or a ruling that ordered Grumman aerospace corp. To  $840,556 to the family of a Navy Pilot who died when his plane crashed off the California coast in 1979,.the death of Navy la Gary s. Shaw of fort Lauder Dae Fla. Was blamed on a design defect in Grumman s a-6 plane. The plane crashed within seconds after taking. Off from the aircraft Carrier Constellation about 100 Miles off the coast of san Diego. Navy investigators said the most Likely cause of the crash was the loss or failure of a Bolt in the plane s system for controlling us up and Down movement. Although the a-6 is the mainstay of the navy1 Carrier based attack Fleet there have been at least six other Acci dents involving the plane s  mechanism since the 1950s, in 1981, Shaw s father Edwin Lees Shaw sued Over his ton s death. Last december the 11 the . Circuit court of appeals upheld the 1840,556 jury award against Grumman. The appeals court said military contractors in such cases Are not exempt from liability Grumman contended that forcing it to  undermine the military s Independence and violates the separation of Powers by giving courts too much Power. But the appeals court said although the Navy did formally approve Onigman s a-6 specifications and de sign changes that approval did not constitute the sort of informed military decision to accept the risk of a danger Ous product to which this court must defer under separa Tion of Powers doctrine in such cases the appeals court said the defense con tractor has More information about risks and the Mili tary May simply be working in the dark our Central concern is whether or not the military actually made a decision to use a product that it knew to supreme court Roundup be dangerous to servicemen the appeals court said. Since the military was not sued by the Shaw family it was up to Grumman to prove it allowed specific orders in designing the a-6, the appeals court said and the company failed to do so. Grumman had argued that allowing monetary damages in such lawsuits would undermine serve remembers Confidence and give Comfort to enemies of the United states. If anything persuades pilots to tremble and the enemy to rejoice it will be the a-6 s Accident record itself not this court s recognition of it the appeals court said. In the Appeal acted on tuesday Grumman s lawyers said four other Federal appeals courts have disagreed. Lawyers for the Shaw family said the companies were trying to deceive the supreme court into believing the government was the defendant in the Case. The High court has ruled that members of the armed services May not sue the government Over injuries suffered in connection with their military service. In other action tuesday the court announced a ruling that May save Consumers millions of dollars in monthly phone Bills by a 3-2 Vole the court barred the Federal communications commission from imposing on the states an equipment depreciation formula aimed at promoting More rapid modernization. Rejected appeals by Public Utility companies seeking to recover from Consumers the costs of nuclear Power plants never completed or shut Down after completion. The court for varying reasons let stand rulings against the operators of the three mite Island Plant in Harris Burg pa., and the never completed Bailly Plant near Chesterton ind. Agreed to examine what Power states have to limit prison inmates from marrying and from corresponding with inmates in other prisons. The court said it will hear an Appeal by Missouri officials seeking to limit inmate marriages and Tetter writing. Agreed to hear a Reagan administration Appeal aimed at making it easier to use grand jury evidence in civil lawsuits filed by the government. The court said it will review a ruling that limited Access by Justice department antitrust lawyers to grand jury testimony in a Price fixing and bid rigging investigation to Newyork Kelty. Spared the Federal government from having to Gua Rantee billions of additional dollars in credit provided by Banks. In a 6-3 ruling the court said so called standby tellers of credit issued by Banks Are not equivalent to deposits insured by the Federal Deposit insurance corp 23 German sex officers return to Celebration at Texas Row Camp Mexia Texas a More than 40 years after their release from Texas largest world War ii prison Camp 23 German officers returned monday to talk with their former guards and celebrate the ensuing years of peace. Forty three year ago a met As Adver Saries in War organizer Tom Premiss said in an opening address. We. Welcome Yon at friends. You Are a part of us and we Are a  Al a news conference in the Mexia civic Center the former prisoners of War and their families applauded in of their sex guards. The guards returned the applause As the pos were made honorary citizens of Mexia. Wolfhart Bunte Sld a former pow said he decided to bring his family Back to Mexia because for him the Camp bad Many pleasant memories. People were very kind he said. Most of the German soldiers were in Russia. Per haps Only 10 percent came Back. In Mexia for us the War was Over and we stayed Here. We have Only some personal difficulties from being so far from  Burdenski who was at the ramp from july 1943 to March 1945, was an officer in the afrika corps As were most of the offi cers imprisoned in Mexia he said the for Mer pos meet annually in Germany and a few have visited Mexia individually. Former guard Jerry Miller said he never considered the prisoners his enemies. Miller a Corporal was stationed at the Camp now a state school for the two years it was open. The reunion was prompted by a Texas sesquicentennial commission member s invitation to some germans to tour the area said Bill Parker president of the Mexia chamber of Commerce. When the commission heard about the former prisoners visits it decided to hold an official reunion son of film director Coppola Dies in Motorboat Accident Edgewater my. Up the son of movie director Francis Ford Coppola was killed and actor Ryan o Neal s son was injured when their Motorboat ran under an other boat s Low line officials said today. Gian Carlo Coppola 23, of Apple Valley calif., suffered massive head injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at Anno Arundel county general hos Pilat at 6 20 . Monday a Hospital spokeswoman said. The memorial Day Accident occurred on the South River police spokeswoman Tona Miceli identified the other passenger As Griffin Patrick o Neal 21, the son of actor Ryan o Neal. She said o Neal suffered a minor shoulder injury but refused treatment. Coppola and o Neal were in the area because Coppola s father has been shooting a movie gardens of Stone Al Arlington National cemetery outside Washington. Robert Hudson of the Maryland natural resources police said Coppola and o Neal were passengers in a 14-foot Mckee Craft there were iwo other boats one that was being towed by the other he said. The Coppola boat Cut in Between a boat being Lowed and a person hit by the Tow line and thrown to the deck of the boat received massive head  new Federal ban ignites sales of machine guns Nashville Tenn. A wean on dealers have had trouble keeping enough machine guns on hand to satisfy a National buying spree sparked by a Federal ban on their manufacture for Public Sale people who were undecided about buying a gun and were Silling on the Fence Are buying now before the Price gets too High and there Are no guns left said Roger Small president of automatic weaponry of Nashville president Reagan signed the gun Law May 19, and As of that Dale do machine guns could be manufactured for Sale to the Public. The Law also eases restriction on gun owners and dealers but other provisions do not Lake effect until nov. Is. In anticipation of the Law manufacturers stockpiled As Many machine guns As possible to Deal with a temporary surge in buying in addition prices Rose since the legislation passed the . House a month ago Industry officials said. For instance a Thompson Summa Chine gun that used to retail for about $1,095 now Sells for 31,695 a Mac-10, the Model used frequently on Miami vice has gone from s7js to s1,i93, dealers said. Doug Nichols vice president of Auto ordinances inc. Of West Hurley n.y., which manufactures Thompson Semi automatic machine guns said his com Pany emptied its shelves after the Bill passed the House. We be sold about �00 guns since april 10. We usually sell about that Many in a year Nichols Aid. The de Mand influenced the company to make an unplanned production run of 1,000 More Thompsons he said and almost Alt of them have been sold in Washington meanwhile applications to Register the weapons with the ils Bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms have increased dramatically. Wayne Moran chief of inc Bureau s National firearms Branch which issues licenses said his office received from 15 to 100 applications a Day before the House passed the gun control Bill. Now we re getting tens of thousands a Day he said. We can hardly even open the mail we re getting so Many  Moran said his office had instituted Field programs to verify All the applications. We anticipate a drastic increase in numbers of registered weapons he said prospective buyers must have the approval of the local Law enforcement Leader the police chief for example sub Mit fingerprints have their photograph taken and allow the Fri to Check their record to obtain a machine gun License which costs 1200. Since april 4, at has registered 5,3is new guns but those figure Don t really mean anything because on a very rough guess we have 40,000 to 80,000 applications left 10 process and we re still getting More every Day Deron Dobbs in at supervisory coordinator said thursday. For a while people thought the Bill would ban silencers and we registered almost a thousand of them in the last month Dobbs said. We re flooded with All kinds of applications right  As of May 20, at reported 16,521 silencers Ana 127,21s machine guns registered in the United states Dobbs said. By comparison in 1984, there were 105,125 machine guns registered nation wide said at agent Tom Hill. Sales surged at Small arms weaponry a Nashville gun shop after it advertised in april 10 Tell prospective custom ers their last Chance to collect and own a real machine gun is at hand said Mike Cut mings the store s manager