Page 30 - Pierce County Lawyer Novemer December 2024

How I Found Out
About the Law or...
How the Law Found Me
By David Shelvey
For my last article of the year I wanted to do something
fun by typing up a fact-pattern such as we had on our Bar
Exam, and I added some law in spots.
In 1985 I was offered a part-time job at Seattle-based Northern
Air Freight, basically running freight to and from the airport.
Northern Air Freight had a very large warehouse by Sea-Tac
Airport. For my shifts, I worked either 11 to 5 or 3 to 9, with
extra hours if I were needed. Tom would call me at home about
9 am to let me know what time I needed to come in. In the
morning, I drove a truck to the airport to pick up freight and
in the late afternoon took freight to the airport for shipping.
It was not uncommon for me to drive a 40-foot truck onto
the airport tarmac right up to the plane waiting for me (well,
the freight). Obviously this was before the FAA security
regulations. One memorable delivery was when I took two
very expensive, UFO looking coffee makers, imported from
Italy, to a house in Seattle, where I met Howard Schultz. He
helped me unload the coffee makers into his garage, inspected
both and, finding no damage, signed the air waybill.
Every once in a while I would be sent to the Auburn Boeing
plant, where my dad used to work swing shift, to pick up AOG
(Aircraft on the Ground that needs to be repaired ASAP) parts
and rush them to the airport. If there were a morning AOG, I
would get a call and be sent to Boeing to pick the part up on
my way in. Then I'd go to the office with the air waybill, get a
company truck, and run it to the airport. One day I was told to
get to Boeing as fast as I could and run the AOG part straight
to the airport... this was an emergency and if necessary, I
needed to speed. I showed up at Boeing at 7 pm, picked up my
security pass at the guard shack, and went to the loading dock.
On this particular day, the place was a ghost town. I went to
the dock window and a man came to the window. I asked him
where everyone was. He said, “They are on their union break.”
I let him know I was there to pick-up an emergency AOG
part for Delta. He informed me that I needed to wait until 8
pm when their union break was over. I asked him why he was
not on union break, and he said he was a manager. I radioed
the office and let them know what was going on. I went back
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to the dock window and asked him if I could go visit with my
dad at the 32-50 building, where he worked at station 65. He
gave me directions. You should have seen the look on my dad’s
face. In his heavy English accent, he remarked, “Oí, you’re not
allowed to be here.” I told him why I was there, and he said, “I
just cut an AOG part for Delta.” I drove straight to the airport
and when I got there, I was instructed to drive the van out onto
the tarmac to a waiting airplane. People were staring at me
through the windows. The stewardess came running down the
stairs and I handed her the part. The next morning Pat called
me, “Why were you an hour late! I said, “Union break” and he
replied, “That’s no excuse.”
A couple of days later my dad called me at 1:00 am to tell me
he did an AOG for United. That morning Tom called, and I
said, “Is it for United?” I explained to him how I knew this.
A couple days later, 1:00 am my dad called to tell me British
Airways. That morning Tom called and asked if my dad called.
I said British Airways and he responded, "you know the drill."
One day I was working the swing shift when over the speaker
came, “Captain – emergency AOG, you know the drill.” I made
it to Boeing at 7 pm. Darn, I thought. I went up to the dock
window and he pointed to a box on the table in the middle
of the floor and instructed me to go get it and bring him
the attached air waybill. I said I am not allowed to cross the
yellow line. He replied, “Do as you are told, son.” Now this was
different because the box had “AOG” written in big letters and
the air waybill was filled out and signed.
In the far back corner of the warehouse there was a section
with a yellow “do not cross” line. This was where the Comat
(company materials) were kept. It seemed for the couple of
years I worked at that location, they must have had 4 or 5
Comat Kids. One day I was asked to start at 9 am to help
the new Comat Kid, Eric. I helped Eric fill out airway bills
and complete pull slips by putting the marketing materials,
letterhead, and shipping forms on the pallets and then taking
them to the other side of the warehouse for shipping. I was
told the area was off limits because Northern Air Freight’s
marketing materials are confidential.