A federal jury in Chicago returned a $49.5 million compensatory damages verdict on May 13, 2026, against The Boeing Company in the wrongful-death case brought by the estate of Samya Rose Stumo, a 24-year-old American passenger who died aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 when the aircraft crashed in March 2019 [1][2]. The case proceeded to trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before Judge Jorge L. Alonso after Boeing had previously admitted sole responsibility for the crash, leaving compensatory damages as the primary issue for the jury to resolve [1][3]. The litigation arose from Boeing's design and implementation of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, the automated flight control software that investigators determined caused both the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the earlier Lion Air Flight 610 disaster [3].
Trial counsel for the estate, Shanin Specter and Elizabeth Crawford of Kline & Specter, presented the damages case to the jury across three categories [1][3]. The jury allocated $21 million for Stumo's pre-death pain and suffering aboard the doomed aircraft, $16.5 million for the family's loss of companionship, and $12 million for the family's grief [1][2][3]. The combined $49.5 million award represents one of the largest individual wrongful-death verdicts in the 737 MAX litigation, which has produced dozens of settlements and a smaller number of contested trials [4].
The verdict carries no punitive component, as the jury was not asked to assess punitive damages at this stage. Plaintiff's counsel has signaled an intention to pursue punitive damages on appeal, a posture that could substantially alter the final financial exposure Boeing faces in this matter [4]. Boeing has not resolved all 737 MAX civil claims, and the Stumo trial is among the last cases in the broader litigation wave to proceed to a jury rather than settle [1][4].