Court: Cirrus not required to train pilot

The Minnesota Supreme Court says Duluth-based Cirrus Design Corp. had no legal duty to provide a flight lesson to a Grand Rapids man whose plane crashed in 2003, killing him and his passenger.

Wednesday's opinion upholds an April 2011 appeals court decision that vacated a more than $16 million award for families of pilot Gary Prokop and passenger James Kosak.

The justices say suppliers have a duty to warn of dangerous products if it's reasonable that someone could get injured. They say Cirrus did that by providing instructions, but training on safe use of a product is not required.

Justices Paul Anderson and Alan Page disagreed, saying the majority overstepped its authority and essentially said consumers can't hold suppliers of dangerous products liable for injury due to defective non-written instructions.