Legal Blow for Families of Slain Nepali Laborers
Supreme Court precedent leaves little legal ammo for the families of Nepali laborers who were executed after a defense contractor allegedly trafficked them into Iraq, a federal judge ruled. Ramchandra Adhikari is the lead plaintiff in the 2008 action alleging that U.S. military contractors duped 13 Nepali men into indentured servitude… Daoud & Partners and KBR, a former Halliburton subsidiary previously known as Kellogg Brown & Root, are named as defendants. Because "all relevant conduct by Daoud and KBR occurred outside of the United States," however, U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison dismissed the claims against them under the Alien Tort Statute last week…Though the judge also nixed the families' claim against Daoud under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, he preserved the TVPRA [Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act ] claim against KBR…