The parent of go! airline, which was ordered to pay $80 million to Hawaiian Airlines for misusing confidential documents, will not get a new trial, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris said Mesa Air Group, which owns go!, should have done more to protect key evidence that was destroyed by the company's former chief financial officer.

"I think it would be completely unfair for Hawaiian to suffer the consequences," Faris said.

"If anyone should be held responsible it should be Mesa."

Shares of Mesa dropped 4 cents yesterday to close at $3.63 on the Nasdaq market.

Hawaiian sued Mesa last year, alleging that the company used proprietary information about Hawaiian's routes, marketing plans, financial projections and other records to launch go! in June 2006.

Hawaiian also alleged that Mesa's former chief financial officer, Peter Murnane, destroyed hundreds of pages of computer records that would have shown that the company misappropriated the data.

Mesa argued that the records were not entirely destroyed but was not allowed to introduce them as evidence.

Mesa attorney Daniel Petrocelli yesterday argued that Mesa shouldn't be punished for the actions of a "rogue" employee.

Petrocelli asked for a new trial on the grounds that copies of the purged records were discovered in Murnane's garage and should have been included as evidence in the trial.

He said the company now plans to appeal Faris' decision with the U.S. District Court in Honolulu.

"This is an unprecedented decision," he said. "No evidence was lost or destroyed."

Bruce Bennett, Hawaiian's attorney, argued that Mesa only turned over copies of 11 percent to 12 percent of all the files destroyed by Murnane.

"What they are saying is that Hawaiian should be on the receiving end of a trial by ambush," Bennett said.

During yesterday's hearing, Faris was critical of a statement he attributed to Mesa chief executive Jonathan Ornstein that Ornstein alone made the decision to enter the Hawai'i market and that other employees such as Murnane had no bearing on that decision.

"I simply did not believe that testimony," Faris said.

Ornstein declined comment.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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