Monthly Archives: March 2022

A federal judge has ruled against a motion by KBR to transfer to Iraq a lawsuit filed against the company. Survivors of Ryan Maseth, a Green Beret who was killed in Iraq in 2008 when he was electrocuted in a shower facility, had sued the military contractor for negligence.

District Judge Nora Fischer for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, denied KBR’s motion to transfer the case to Iraq, but did not rule on whether the case should be transferred elsewhere in the United States.

KBR’s attempt to move the case is the only the latest example of a military contractor’s attempt to transfer a case against it to an Islamic country. Blackwater AWS lost its attempt to transfer the claims arising from the crash of a charter flight because Islamic law would not hold a company liable for the acts of its employees.

Doyle Dennis Avery LLP represents persons injured by the negligence of military contractors. The firm is currently engaged in litigation against KBR on behalf of members of the U.S. National Guard and the British Royal Air Force.

Earlier this week, Congress passed a new defense approprations bill. Included is a key amendment designed to promote greater transparency in the government’s dealings with military contractors.

Under the new terms, the military is required to inform both the House and Senate Armed Services Committee when signing contracts granting military contractors immunity from liability.

The goal of the bill is to force greater transparency in the Pentagon’s dealings with contractors, particularly in light of the military’s contract with KBR, which attempted to give KBR immunity from various aspects of its operations during the Iraq War.

Doyle represents U.S. and U.K. servicemen harmed by exposure to sodium dichromate (hexavalent chromium) after being contracted by KBR to monitor its Qarmat Ali Water Treatment Facility in Iraq. Litigation in this case is still ongoing in Oregon and Texas.

More information on the bill is available here.

Today the ICANN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution panel rejected KBR’s attempt to silence www.kbrlitigation.com, the public information site maintained for the Qarmat Ali vets and public to stay informed about the KBR Qarmat Ali litigation.  Although literally dozens of sites used “KBR” and various combinations, KBR chose to pursue a claim to shut down www.kbrlitgation.com.  In finding that the domain name would “clearly represent a nominative fair use of Complainant’s /KBR’s/ mark”, the panel’s decision bolsters free speech and transparency on the web.