PORTLAND — In a split decision, the state’s high court ruled Thursday that the city of Lewiston was immune from a wrongful death civil suit filed by families of three Lewiston High School students who were killed in a plane crash four years ago.

Four members of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court decided to overturn an earlier Androscoggin County Superior Court ruling that said the city wasn’t immune from liability. The Supreme Court granted the city a summary judgment, essentially ending the case.

Three judges dissented, supporting the trial court’s position.

An attorney representing the city said Thursday that he thought the high court made the proper ruling, which puts to rest legal liability stemming from the crash but doesn’t diminish the grief.

“There is still a great loss in the school community as a result of what happened,” Ed Benjamin Jr. said. “This still was obviously a tragic event. Being a winner in this type of situation doesn’t give great solace.”

Terrence Garmey, a Portland lawyer who represented the estate of one of the students, and spoke before the high court in February for all three, said Thursday it was a difficult loss. It was especially disappointing considering the court’s split, he said.

“We were one vote away from what we considered a very important win,” Garmey said. He didn’t understand the reasoning of the majority. Those judges seemed to construe a different interpretation of the words used by the Legislature than those that appear in the Maine Tort Claims Act, he said.

“I feel just crushed for the families who lost children in this case,” Garmey said.

The implications could be significant if the majority ruling means that governmental entities can’t be held accountable if they exercise poor judgment and put students at risk, even though the mode of transportation used isn’t publicly owned or piloted by school employees.

The court majority said in its written decision that the city’s immunity remained intact under the Maine Tort Claims Act.

At issue was the court’s interpretation of the word “use” in reading Maine law. 

Benjamin had argued the city wasn’t “using” an airplane owned and operated by Twin Cities Air Services in Auburn when that plane crashed into Barker Mountain in Newry in 2006. Aboard were three Lewiston High School Air Force Junior ROTC students on an orientation flight. He said the city had no control over the operation of the aircraft because it had hired an independent contractor and relied on that contractor’s equipment and expertise.

Because the plane belonged to Twin Cities, was maintained by Twin Cities and was operated by a Twin Cities’ pilot, the city didn’t control its use, the court’s majority concluded.

Judges in the minority insisted the word “use” means exactly that and is not a synonym of ownership and maintenance or operation. “Either interpretation contradicts the plain language of the Act and may be read as extending the cloak of immunity to virtually every instance in which the government contracts with third parties to provide transportation services.”

Two of the families’ lawsuits against Twin Cities had been settled before Thursday.

Students Nicholas Babcock, 17, Teisha Loesberg, 16, and Shannon Fortier, 15, were flying in a single-engine plane operated by Auburn-based Twin Cities out of Bethel Airport. The plane crashed into Barker Mountain in nearby Newry, killing everyone aboard.

A student on an earlier flight said he reported that the young pilot had performed unusual maneuvers, yet the subsequent flight, during which the three students were killed, wasn’t stopped.

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