Among the victims that the Kiobel case will affect are one surviving laborer and the families of twelve others who were allegedly trafficked from Nepal to Iraq to work for US military contractors, who are the plaintiffs in Adhikari v. Daoud Partners.
According to the complaint, the men believed they were going to work at hotels in Jordan and elsewhere, but instead were instead taken against their will to work for US military contractor in Iraq - Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton. Unfortunately, the 12 men were captured by insurgents and killed on the way to the US base where they were to work. Their families and the surviving laborer filed suit in the United States against KBR and Daoud & Partners, the contractor that was supplying the labor for the base and who allegedly confiscated the laborers' passports and held them against their will before they were killed.
The plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Statute and other laws. On November 3, 2009, the federal court in Texas turned aside KBR’s effort to stop the lawsuit. Judge Keith Ellison held that plaintiffs’ claims may go forward. In denying KBR’s motion to dismiss, the court found, among other things, that trafficking and forced labor were violations of international law and could be pursued under the ATS. On December 12, 2011, the court ruled that it has personal jurisdiction over the second defendant, Daoud & Partners. Daoud & Partners, a subcontractor to KBR, earned 100% of its revenue from KBR and US government contracts during the relevant time period.
Read more about Adhikari v. Daoud Partners on the website of law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.
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