Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multistate coalition supporting former U.S. Army Specialist Winston Hencely, a decorated combat veteran who was severely injured in a terrorist bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
Hencely suffered injuries when a Taliban-affiliated employee, who was negligently hired and supervised by a military contractor, detonated a bomb on base during a Veterans Day 5k Run, which killed five Americans and injured sixteen others. The contractor, Fluor Corporation (“Fluor”), employed the bomber despite his connections to terrorist groups and failed to properly supervise him, allowing him to build the explosive device with materials found on the base. An Army investigation concluded that, “Fluor’s complacency and its lack of reasonable supervision” was the primary cause of the tragedy.
Hencely filed a lawsuit against Fluor under South Carolina law, but the Fourth Circuit dismissed the case, citing the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”). The FTCA is a law that generally shields the federal government from liability for combat-related actions, however the law is crystal clear that it does not extend immunity to private military contractors. Despite this, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals wrongly applied the FTCA to Fluor, shielding the company from accountability. After advocacy from Attorney General Paxton and other states in an earlier cert-stage amicus brief, the U.S. Supreme Court will now hear the case this fall.
“Our military servicemembers and their families deserve better than a system that gives corporate contractors a free pass,” said Attorney General Paxton. “No contractor should be allowed to hide behind legal loopholes after their egregious negligence caused the death of five Americans and endangered many others. I will continue to stand with Winston Hencely at the U.S. Supreme Court and fight against judicial overreach that protects careless corporations instead of holding them accountable.”
To read the brief, click here.