DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer
Saturday, July 18, 2009
7/18/2009 3:33:14 AM
Two Oklahoma veterans of the war in Iraq are suing Halliburton Co. and KBR Inc., saying the companies "callously exposed and continue to expose soldiers and others to toxic smoke, ash and fumes" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
David Green of Miami, Okla., and Nick Daniel Heisler of Lawton say in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Tulsa, that they are seeking "redress for American soldiers and others deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan who were poisoned" by the companies.
The plaintiffs' attorneys are Armando Rosell of Oklahoma City and William O'Neil and Elizabeth Burke of Washington, D.C.
O'Neil said Friday that about 20 deaths have resulted from the defendants' actions.
He declined to estimate the number of people who have been sickened or injured, saying that total should become more clear during the discovery process.
A motion to certify the cases as a class-action lawsuit eventually will be filed, O'Neil said.
The filing of the Tulsa case late Thursday brought the total number of such lawsuits filed by the firm in the nation's federal courts to 21, O'Neil said.
The majority of the cases involve smoke-related injuries from burn pits.
O'Neil said motions have been made to transfer the cases to one federal court district — either in Maryland or Florida — for consolidated pretrial discovery. Still, he said, it is possible that the Tulsa lawsuit could eventually be sent back here for trial.
Heather Browne, KBR's director of communications, said in a statement Friday that "KBR is still reviewing the recently filed suits. It should be noted though that KBR did not operate the burn pit at Balad in Iraq, as has been previously asserted. It should also be noted that any burn pit operated in Iraq or Afghanistan is done pursuant to Army guidelines and regulations."
She added, "The general assertion that KBR knowingly harmed troops is unfounded as the safety and security of all KBR employees and those the company serves remains our top priority."
Diana Gabriel, Halliburton's senior manager of public relations, said Friday in a written statement that "as these lawsuits are based on KBR activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, we believe that Halliburton is improperly named in these cases and, as such, we expect Halliburton to be dismissed from the suits as Halliburton would have no responsibility, legal or otherwise, for the actions alleged."
Gabriel added, "Further, it would be inappropriate for Halliburton to comment on the merits of a matter affecting only the interest of KBR."
Halliburton and KBR were part of the same company for 44 years until they separated in April 2007, with Halliburton saying the split allowed it to focus on its profitable operations assisting oil and natural-gas producers.
The Tulsa lawsuit alleges that "the defendants were paid millions of dollars by the United States government to dispose of waste on bases and camps in Iraq and Afghanistan. Defendants promised to dispose of all waste in a method designed to minimize safety risks, to minimize the environmental effects of any burn site they operated and to minimize any type of smoke exposure to people" in and around the area.
The complaint says "the defendants utterly failed to fulfill any of the promises they made to the United States government. Defendants, more interested in money than safety, wholly ignored their obligations and burned vast quantities of unsorted waste in enormous open air burn pits with no safety controls."
The lawsuit says that "this misconduct began in 2004 and continues unabated to date," and it asks for actual and punitive damages for each plaintiff.
