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KBR Loses Bid to Have Iraqi Court Hear Electrocution Suit

Military Contractors

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.