The Nation - News from Jan. 16, 1985

A federal jury in St. Paul, Minn., awarded $10,000 to a 74-year-old woman who claimed a “singing cowboy” caused her to suffer chest pains and a nervous condition by warning passengers over an airplane’s address system to be ready for a crash-landing. The jury decided that Air California Inc. was 80% negligent and that passenger-jokester Larry White of Waukon, Iowa, was 19% responsible for damages. The jury said passenger Adeline Miller, who also was awarded $226 in medical expenses, was 1% negligent in the case. The Jan. 29, 1983, incident occurred on a flight with 162 vacationers returning from Las Vegas to Rochester, N.Y.