$85 Million Verdict for Oregon National Guard Soldiers Poisoned by KBR in Iraq

In 2003, members of the Oregon Army National Guard were deployed to the Qarmat Ali water treatment facility in southern Iraq, where defense contractor KBR (then a Halliburton subsidiary) had been hired to rehabilitate the plant. The facility was contaminated with sodium dichromate, an orange powder containing hexavalent chromium, a well-documented human carcinogen. Soldiers guarding the site while KBR crews worked were exposed to the dust for weeks.

Internal KBR documents later showed company personnel had identified the contamination and noted that nearly 60 percent of people on site were showing symptoms of exposure. Rather than halt work or issue clear warnings, KBR characterized sodium dichromate to workers as a mild irritant. Soldiers reported severe nosebleeds, respiratory problems, and debilitating headaches during and after deployment. In the years that followed, several received cancer diagnoses. Two soldiers died.

Twelve Oregon Guard members filed suit against KBR, represented by a team of three law firms: Doyle Raizner LLP of Houston, David F. Sugerman Attorney PC of Portland, and Cohen and Malad LLP of Indianapolis. Gabriel Hawkins of Cohen and Malad served as co-trial counsel.

After a trial in federal court in Portland, the jury returned a unanimous verdict on November 2, 2012. Jurors found KBR had acted with 'reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm.' Each of the 12 soldiers received $850,000 in non-economic damages and $6.25 million in punitive damages, for a total verdict of approximately $85 million.

KBR appealed, and in 2015 the Ninth Circuit reversed the judgment on personal jurisdiction grounds, holding that KBR was not subject to personal jurisdiction in Oregon under the U.S. Supreme Court's intervening decision in Walden v. Fiore. The reversal was procedural; the jury's factual findings about KBR's conduct at Qarmat Ali were not disturbed on the merits.