On the SWAPA lawsuit:
Actually the logic of the claim is well recognized in a variety of cases and types of damages claims. It isn't much divergent from the calculation of backpay to an employee discharged for a reason found to be unlawful - a type of legal calculation in widely accepted use since the National Labor Relations Act became law several decades ago. And I have tried cases involving claims not only for backpay, but for "front pay" as well, in other words from the time of the court judgment until a projected time of retirement or other definable intervening event. Yes, it involves expert witness economist testimony, but it is a stock-in-trade of employment litigation. And while this case isn't quite an employment law action, the idea that the lost income claims are too speculative or uncertain is completely wrong. It will have to be established and proved up, of course, but that's routine law-biz stuff.
And....
Maybe, ...and it's a big "if".... Boeing might try a "failure to mitigate damages" line of defense. The defense would be that the Southwest pilots union has thrown up monkey wrenches into the process of getting consensus on the specific training modules that will be needed for return to flight (a quite well-placed source, with access to industry labor circles, related this not long ago). They've prolonged the return to flight, the argument would go, by repeatedly finding reasons not to agree to an emerging consensus in industry labor groups. I suppose, if the standards of rigor of an airline flight training program are said to be suspect to begin with, joining a consensus premised on more rigorous underlying training previously, could be understandable. But if it's a real set of facts, not only could it support a failure to mitigate defense, but it could pull rugs out from under the whole lawsuit. I also will say, imagining about how to prep Forkner for dep or trial...I mean, what will look worse to court or jury? - Mr Forkner enmeshed in Boeing's "fast-and-cheap" MAX cadre, a cadre for which the company will pay and pay dearly in other courtrooms for other wrongs inflicted, or First Officer Forkner, hired knowing his past involvement, or, hired without finding out?
Time will tell.