Wrongful-death lawsuit in Shaler soldier’s electrocution dismissed

The mother of a Shaler soldier electrocuted in Iraq said Monday she was “completely disappointed” and will appeal a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit against the company she claims is responsible.

Cheryl Harris of Cranberry said the case involving her son, Ryan Maseth, didn’t end when U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer on Friday dismissed the lawsuit against KBR Inc., a Houston-based engineering and construction company that contracted to maintain Army barracks in Iraq.

“We won’t quit until there is nothing left to appeal,” Harris said. “I was told that if I wanted justice, it would have to be in a courtroom. We expected that justice would prevail, but (the judge’s dismissal) left me surprised and disappointed.”

Read the entire story here.

4 Marines in Afghanistan electrocuted in separate incidents

At least four Marines have been electrocuted in separate incidents since November while serving in Afghanistan, according to the Marine Corps Times.

Their deaths were caused by low-hanging power lines that touched radio antenna and problems stemming from an electric generator, the Times reported, citing documents the paper obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Marine Corps Times reported those electrocuted in Afghanistan recently are Cpls. Adam Buyes, Connor Lowry and Jon-Luke Bateman and Lance Cpl. Kenneth Cochran.

Source: Marine Corps Times

Rulings eyed in Shaler soldier's electrocution in Iraq shower

If the lawyers on opposite sides of a federal wrongful death lawsuit agree on anything, it's that the other side is misinterpreting recent court rulings governing the liability of a private Defense contractor.

The parents of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, a native of Shaler, are suing KBR Inc. for the Jan. 2, 2008, death of their son while he showered on a military base in Iraq maintained by the company.

Cheryl Harris and Douglas Maseth say shoddy electrical work by KBR on a pump caused their son's electrocution. KBR contends that while it had the maintenance contract for the building, the Army decided not to make the building electrically safe.

Read the entire story here.

ABC7Chicago.com Military death investigation focuses on role as gunner

KBR Dodges Lawsuit From Shocked Marine

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) - A Marine who was shocked while trying to install a wiring box at the military base near Fallujah, Iraq, cannot pursue negligence claims against defense contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, the 4th Circuit ruled.

     Peter Taylor had sought relief from the appellate court after a federal judge dismissed the claim in April 2010. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar had agreed with KBR that Taylor lacked subject-matter jurisdiction since the political question doctrine bars negligence claims. Doumar also found that the "combat activities" exemption of the Federal Tort Claims Act pre-empts the suit.
The 4th Circuit declined to revive Taylor's claim, but it did vacate the trial court's finding about the pre-emption issue since the lack of jurisdiction removes the judges need to consider this aspect of the case.

     Taylor, a hospital corpsman for the Marines, had been stationed at a camp about 15 miles outside Fallujah at the time of the July 2007 accident. A generator malfunction had incapacitated the tank ramp that troops used to maintain Marine tanks, Humvees and other vehicles.

     Power outages were a recurring problem for the Marines, so Taylor and others tried to find another source of electricity for the ramp, ultimately deciding to install a wiring box and hook it up to their generator. KBR technicians who had arrived at the base to work on another repair job allegedly knew that the Marines are working with the wiring on the generator. Nevertheless, one of KBR's technicians turned on the generator power while Taylor was working on it, causing him to get electrocuted, according to the complaint.
Read the whole story here.

Electrocution case against KBR can be tried in U.S. court, judge rules

By Charlie Reed

Stars and Stripes

Published: October 4, 2011

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — A civil lawsuit brought against KBR by the parents of a U.S. soldier electrocuted in Iraq can go forward in U.S. court, after a federal judge ruled the case should not be governed by Iraqi laws.

Attorneys for the defense contractor had argued that Iraqi laws should apply to the case because Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth’s death in 2008 occurred on a military base in Iraq. But, for the second time in four months, Judge Nora Barry Fischer sided with Maseth’s family, saying U.S. law is applicable because the base was under American control, according to an Associated Press report.

The 24-year-old Maseth, a Green Beret, died in January 2008 while showering at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad, a facility maintained by KBR. A Defense Department investigation concluded that KBR workers failed to properly ground a water pump, which led to his electrocution.

Fischer’s ruling — handed down last month in the U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania — means KBR could be found liable and ordered to pay punitive damages to the plaintiffs, Cheryl Harris and Douglas Maseth.

“I’m very pleased. It’s been a long 3½ years,” Harris, Maseth’s mother, told Stars and Stripes from her Pennsylvania home Monday. “KBR is trying to prolong the case and argue everything they can.”
In her ruling, the judge found that KBR’s attorneys were trying to have it both ways. The judge said in a footnote that, in her view, KBR’s litigation strategy “is one that constantly shifts to a point where it eventually takes contradictory positions,” according to the AP report.

Fischer had made the same ruling in June, but KBR lawyers had asked her to reconsider.

She noted that KBR first argued it couldn’t be sued because the Army exercised an “envelope of control” over the contractor and its work at the base, so the judge shouldn’t even have jurisdiction or, at least, KBR shouldn’t bear any ultimate responsibility for anything that went wrong there. But later, the judge said, KBR argued that Iraqi law should hold sway because the country’s laws dictated much of what went on at the base — including the sometimes shoddy construction of Iraqi buildings that were commandeered and used to house soldiers like Maseth, according to the AP.

Daniel Russell, an attorney for KBR, said Monday the contractor had no immediate comment on the decision, the AP said.

Following a string of other fatal and nonfatal electrical incidents involving U.S. personnel in Iraq, it was Maseth’s death that spurred a DOD investigation into the widespread electrical problems at bases throughout the country. Both KBR employees and military commanders failed to ensure the safety of troops at the base where Maseth was electrocuted in the shower, according to a July 2009 inspector general report.

KBR reported electrical problems at the palace complex to the military before Maseth was killed, yet was never told to fix the problems until after his death, a KBR spokeswoman told USA Today that same month.

The IG report found that electrical shocks were so commonplace that many incidents went unreported and were considered to be just part of duty in Iraq.

Despite the IG’s findings, the Army decided no one should be held criminally liable for Maseth’s electrocution.

While many contractors and government employees “breached their respective duties of care … none of those breaches in and of themselves were the proximate cause of his death,” the Army said in a statement released after the IG report came out.

The Army’s handling of the case disturbs Harris as much as KBR’s failure to take responsibility in the case.

“Soldiers are shocked and shocked and then one is killed, and it’s no one’s fault?” Harris said Monday.

Fischer now must determine whether to apply liability laws from Pennsylvania, Maseth’s home state; Tennessee, where Maseth’s unit was based; or Texas, where KBR is headquartered, AP reported.

reedc@pstripes.osd.mil

Read the entire story here.
More:

Judge: U.S. laws govern shower death lawsuit

KBR wants Iraqi law used in electrocution case

PITTSBURGH — Attorneys for Houston-based military contractor KBR Inc. have asked a federal judge in Pittsburgh to apply Iraqi law to a lawsuit filed by the mother of a Pittsburgh-area soldier who was electrocuted while showering at a U.S. military base in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Nora Berry Fischer asked attorneys for both sides to file written arguments before she’ll decide the issue.

At a hearing Tuesday, she frankly acknowledged what she believed was the reason for the motion. “The big nut is whether or not you can apply for punitive damages,” the judge said. “You can’t get punitives in Iraq.”

Read the entire story here.

KBR Must Defend Green Beret Electrocution Case

August 19, 2010, 3:29 PM EDT

By David Voreacos and Tony Capaccio

Updates in second paragraph with description of accident.)

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- KBR Inc., the largest contractor in Iraq, must defend a wrongful-death lawsuit by the parents of a Green Beret who was electrocuted while showering in a building that the company maintained, a federal appeals court ruled.

KBR, based in Houston, asked the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss a case over the accidental death on Jan. 2, 2008, of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth. The Pentagon inspector general reported last year that KBR was partly to blame because the shower’s electrical pump wasn’t properly installed.

KBR’s appeal, after a judge declined to dismiss in March 2009, raises “interesting and important questions” about whether it invokes political issues that shouldn’t go before a judge, and whether KBR is immune from suit under a “combatant activities” exception, the court said.
“We do not reach these questions now, however, because they are not properly before us,” a panel of the Philadelphia- based court said Aug. 17. “We must dismiss this premature appeal for lack of jurisdiction.”

The panel sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Nora Fisher in Pittsburgh for more pretrial gathering of evidence. The appeal was premature because Fisher did not “conclusively determine” whether KBR could cite the political-question doctrine or combatant activities exception, the panel ruled.

A KBR spokeswoman, Heather Browne, said the company disagrees with the ruling. It was not responsible for Maseth’s death and will defend the case, she said.

Important Questions

“The court recognized that this case raises important questions of law, but ruled the appeal was premature,” Browne said in an e-mail. “The court found only that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the merits of KBR’s arguments at this time.”

Maseth, of Shaler, Pennsylvania, a member of the 5th Special Forces Group, was in his second tour of duty in Iraq. He died of cardiac arrest caused by electric shock, according to the complaint by his mother, Cheryl Harris, and his father, Douglas Maseth.

They allege that the electrical problems at the building where Maseth died were well-known, that KBR negligently failed to repair them, and that the negligence caused his death.

Maseth died in a shower at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Iraq in part because the pump wasn’t properly grounded when installed less than two years earlier, according to the inspector general’s report. The report examined the electrocution of 18 U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq.

‘Catastrophic Result’

The inspector general criticized the Army’s oversight of Maseth’s compound, saying his death “was the catastrophic result of the failure of multiple systems exposing U.S. personnel to unnecessary risk.”

KBR, Army commanders, and Army contracting command that provided oversight were “responsible for the use and physical condition” of the facility, it said.

Starting in February 2006, “KBR did not ground equipment during installation or report improperly grounded equipment identified during routine maintenance” at the facility, according to the report.

KBR installed the pump on the roof that contributed to the electrocution of Maseth, said the report.

“The pump that failed leading to the electrocution was not grounded during installation,” it said. “Safe and proper installation required grounding.”

In February, the Army’s Rock Island Contracting Center informed KBR it was being docked all potential fees of $24.1 million for January through April 2008.

‘Failures to Perform’

An Army contracting official, James Loehrl, told KBR in a letter the action followed “failures to perform at a level deserving” of a fee.

The deficiencies included “KBR’s failure to document the poor conditions of the electrical systems” at the complex, its “failure to provide notice of unsafe life, health and safety conditions and KBR’s failure to employ qualified personnel to provide electrical services.”

In a March 9 rebuttal, KBR Vice President Douglas Horn disputed Loehrl’s claims as “contrary to fact and conflict with findings previously made by multiple government entities.”

Horn disputed what he called the implication that KBR bore responsibility for the deaths of Maseth and others.

“There is no evidence this is true,” Horn said. “The Army knew that buildings” in the complex and elsewhere “had deficient electrical systems” and “the Army chose to house individuals in these buildings” or “not to authorize rewiring or other upgrade work.”

The company is “exploring options and remedies” for recovering the $24.1 million from the Army, Horn wrote in a response to the letter denying the fees.

The case is Harris v. Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc., 08-cv-563, U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh).

--Editors: Charles Carter, Fred Strasser

To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net; Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net

--submitted by Patti Woodard

Military’s casualty notification system often frustratingly uneven for families

To read the article in Stars and Stripes, click here.

Army Completes Staff Sgt. Maseth Death Investigation

The Army announced today that the investigation into the tragic death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth has been completed. The extensive, eleven-month investigation conducted by the Army Criminal Investigation Command concluded that there is insufficient evidence to prove or disprove that any one person, persons or entity was criminally culpable in the death of Maseth.

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology medical examiner previously found the cause of Maseth's death to be electrocution and the manner accidental. The completed Criminal Investigation Division death investigation concurs with those findings.

"This has been a complex investigation involving numerous people, circumstances and contractual agreements," said Brig. Gen. Rodney Johnson, commanding general, U. S. Army Criminal Investigations Command. "It was a lengthy, thorough and detailed investigation. Reviewing the many documents and issues did take an extraordinary amount of time, but we wanted to do everything we could to get it right. We owe that to Staff Sgt. Maseth and his loved ones."

The investigation revealed that there were numerous entities and individuals, both contractors and government employees, who breached their respective duties of care; however none of those breaches, in and of themselves, were the proximate cause of his death. The investigation was closed with a finding that there is insufficient evidence to prove or disprove any criminal negligence in the soldier's death.

"As with all of our criminal investigations, if new, credible information becomes available, we stand ready to reopen the investigation to pursue the truth, wherever it may lead," Johnson said.

There have been 18 reported deaths due to electrocution in Iraq since March 2003, including 16 service members and two contractors. Fourteen of these cases occurred in the field away from military facilities or in work situations that included performing maintenance on electrical systems.

After a series of electrical accidents and incidents, Multi-National Force–Iraq created Task Force Safety Actions for Fire and Electricity in August 2008 to assess and analyze fire and electrical safety issues in Iraq and then direct actions to remedy those hazards.

As of July 25, the task force has inspected more than 67,000 of the approximately 90,000 pieces of equipment and facilities in Iraq, many of which were substandard structures dating from the Saddam Hussein era. The task force is ahead of schedule to complete the inspections by November. The inspections have led to the correction of nearly 14,000 deficiencies found thus far as the facilities are brought into compliance with the United States National Electric Code. Most deficiencies have been related to electrical grounding and bonding that enables the proper functioning of circuit breakers.

Since Maseth's death, there has not been another confirmed electrocution death of a soldier in Iraq.

For more information, contact Army Public Affairs, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, christopher.garver@us.army.mil , or 703-697-2564.

For questions regarding the criminal investigation contact CID Public Affairs, Chris Grey, christopher.grey@us.army.mil, or (703) 806-0372.

For questions about Task Force SAFE, contact the MNF-I Press Desk at mnfipressdesk@iraq.centcom.mil.

-- Department of Defense bulletin verbatim

Cheryl Harris at Press Conference re KBR Bonus

You can see videos of Cheryl Harris, the mother of Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who was electrocuted while serving in Iraq. Senators Casey and Dorgan were also at the press conference.

Videos of the three statements can be found by clicking here. Look under the listing to the right of the current video.

Department of Defense Inspector General Report on the Electrocution Death of Ryan Maseth

The Department of Defense has released its conclusions on the electrocution death of Ryan Maseth. You can download the .pdf file by going here.

Among the conclusions: "multiple systems and organizations failed..."

Part Two covers seventeen additional incidents of electrocution.

Download it here.

US Troops Still Dodging Deadly Showers

Military races to inspect more than 90,000 facilities to reduce deadly threat

WASHINGTON - The military is racing to inspect more than 90,000 U.S.-run facilities across Iraq to reduce a deadly threat troops face far off the battlefield: electrocution or shock while showering or using appliances.

Pfc. Justin Shults shows some of the burn wounds he received after being electrocuted in a shower facility in Iraq, in this photo taken in January in San Antonio, Texas. Shults suffered third-degree burns on 13-percent of his body. He is suing contractor KBR Inc. for faulty wiring of the facility. (Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News via AP) About one-third of the inspections so far have turned up major electrical problems, according to interviews and an internal military document obtained by The Associated Press. Half of the problems they found have since been fixed but about 65,000 facilities still need to be inspected, which could take the rest of this year. Senior Pentagon officials were on Capitol Hill this week for briefings on the findings

Read the whole story by clicking here.

US troops in Iraq victims of faulty wiring from The Guardian (UK)

Shoddy wiring 'everywhere' on Iraq bases, Army inspector says CNN

Editor's note: If it were not for the lawsuit against KBR by the Maseth family, I doubt that these serious, deadly problems would ever be addressed. Unfortunately in the US, it takes a civil lawsuit to make the government meet their responsibilities to keep military personnel safe.

The civil lawsuit has gotten the attention of the media, and sometimes that is the only way that justice is addressed in America.

Braveheart

Developments in Maseth Case

KBR keeps witness info concealed, lawyer says 18 Mar 2009 A lawyer for the parents of an electrocuted soldier on Tuesday accused defense contractor KBR Inc. of concealing information from unnamed witnesses interviewed after his 2008 death in Iraq. Court papers show those witnesses might be current or former KBR employees and subcontractors... who performed electrical work in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad, where Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Shaler, died Jan. 2, 2008. Records show his death is one of 18 electrocutions in Iraq since 2003.
Filing: Faulty pump installed by KBR 13 Mar 2009 A rooftop pump supplying water to a shower that electrocuted a Shaler soldier was installed by a plumber working in Iraq under defense contractor KBR Inc. in 2006, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court. Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, a decorated Green Beret, died Jan. 2, 2008, when an electrical current flowed through pipes and charged the water of his shower in the Radwaniyah Palace Complex in Baghdad. Papers filed by KBR's Pittsburgh counsel, attorney Joseph Luciana III, include an e-mail from an Army investigator who said a KBR plumber admitted installing the pump atop Maseth's living quarters.

Electrocution Deaths Discussed

Debbie Crawford is a whistleblower who has been brave enough to expose the contractor KBR's (Kellogg, Brown & Root's) part in the electrocution deaths of military personnel in Iraq. Here is a link to her video interview with Rachel Maddow.

This is a link to her blog and Senate Testimony on the subject.

Soldier Suicides and Military Deaths

Soldier Suicides and Military Deaths Continue at Home and in Iraq ...

by Greg Mitchell

KBR Wins Contract Despite Criminal Probe of Deaths

Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Read the whole story by clicking here.

Another Electrocution Death in Iraq

Ongoing investigations are uncovering additional electrocution deaths of US military personnel in Iraq. These deaths were designated as "accidents", "heart attacks", and "due to natural causes."

KBR was the contractor who oversaw the plumbing and electric work in US barracks.

The latest re-designation of a non-combat death:

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25, of South St. Paul, Minn., died Sept. 11, 2004, while showering. His family was told he died of natural causes.

Army: Negliegence Caused Soldier's Electrocution

Army: Negligence caused soldier's electrocution
By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press Writer, 01/22/2009

WASHINGTON - An Army investigation calls the electrocution death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq "negligent homicide" caused by military contractor KBR Inc. and two of its supervisors.

In a document obtained by The Associated Press, an Army criminal investigator says the manner of death for Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, has been changed from accidental to negligent homicide because the contractor failed to ensure that "qualified electricians and plumbers" worked on the barracks where Maseth died.

The Green Beret from Pittsburgh died of cardiac arrest on Jan. 2, 2008. He was electrocuted while taking a shower in his barracks in Baghdad.

A spokesman for Houston-based KBR was not immediately available for comment.

CNN Update on the story

Article in Digital Journal

Pentagon Finds Company Violated Its Contract on Electrical Work in Iraq

October 25, 2008

By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has rebuked its largest contractor in Iraq after a series of inspections uncovered shoddy electrical work and other problems on American military bases there, according to several Defense Department officials.

The Defense Contract Management Agency, the Pentagon agency in charge of supervising contractors in Iraq, determined in August that KBR, the Houston-based company that provides virtually all basic services for the American military in both Iraq and Afghanistan, has been guilty of “serious contractual noncompliance” in Iraq, the officials said.

The Pentagon’s finding could lead to cuts or delays in payments to KBR, and ultimately to a decision by the Army to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses and fees due the company, officials said, but they added that no decisions on financial penalties had been made.

Defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, declined to elaborate on the reasons for the new findings, except to say that they related to electrical problems and other issues.

KBR, formerly a subsidiary of Halliburton, has had a virtual monopoly on military services contracts in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, garnering more than $24 billion from its business in the war zone.

Questions about the quality of KBR’s electrical work on American bases in Iraq have plagued the company throughout 2008, leading to investigations and hearings by Congress as well as an inquiry by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

Internal Pentagon documents obtained by The New York Times suggest that the electrical problems may be more widespread than had been believed. A chart compiled by Army officials and not previously made public shows that more American personnel have been electrocuted in Iraq than the Bush administration has acknowledged.

At least 18 people have died from electrocution since the March 2003 invasion, including 10 from the Army, 5 from the Marine Corps, 1 from the Navy and 2 military contractors. The most recent electrocution occurred on Feb. 24. A chart listing each electrocution provides details but does not identify the victims by name.

This is the second time that the Pentagon has raised its figures on electrocutions in Iraq. Last spring, the Defense Department said that 12 American personnel members had been electrocuted in the country, and then later told Congress that the accurate figure was 13.

KBR is scrambling to respond with a plan to correct the problems cited by the Defense contracting experts, Pentagon officials said. Pentagon officials held a private meeting with KBR officials in Washington last week to review the company’s response, several of the officials said.

Heather Browne, a spokeswoman for KBR, declined to comment on the Pentagon’s finding.

In the past, some Army contracting experts have complained that their superiors in the Pentagon have been reluctant to confront KBR over its fees and the quality of its work. For example, the Army’s top official in charge of the KBR contract at the beginning of the war has said that he was removed from his job in 2004 after challenging KBR’s billing records for its work in Iraq.

The issue of shoddy electrical work on American military bases in Iraq first emerged in the wake of the death in January of Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a Green Beret from Pennsylvania who was electrocuted while taking a shower in his barracks in Baghdad.

Sergeant Maseth’s family went public with their questions about the circumstances surrounding his death and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against KBR, accusing the company of failing to adequately maintain the building’s electrical system.

The Maseth case led to investigations of electrical work on American bases by Congress and the Pentagon’s inspector general, and ultimately prompted an order for comprehensive safety inspections of the electrical work at all American military facilities in Iraq.

Officials said that the Army recently reopened its investigation into Sergeant Maseth’s death, after obtaining new testimony and evidence in the case, including the discovery that another soldier had suffered electrical shocks while assigned to the same room as Sergeant Maseth.

KBR has “fully cooperated with Army C.I.D. on this matter, and we will continue to do so,” Ms. Browne, the spokeswoman, said, referring to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command. “KBR maintains that its activities in Iraq were not responsible for Staff Sergeant Maseth’s death.”