WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for a veteran wounded by a suicide bomb in Afghanistan to sue the government contractor for whom the attacker was working when he built the explosive.
The court ruled 6-3 in favor of former Army Spc. Winston Hencely, who was wounded when he stopped a man on his way to detonate an explosive vest at a Veterans Day weekend 5K race at Bagram Airfield in 2016.
Ahmad Nayeb instead blew himself up when he was confronted, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, according to court documents.
The projectiles fractured Hencely’s skull and tore through his brain, leaving him without the full use of much of the left side of his body. He also has abnormal brainwaves, seizures and traumatic brain injury, his lawyers wrote.
An Army investigation faulted the company’s failure to supervise Nayeb, an Afghan employee who built the vest on the job site inside the base, court documents say.
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Hencely sued Fluor Corporation in South Carolina, where two of its subsidiaries are based, and made claims under the state’s law for negligent supervision, negligent entrustment of tools and negligent retention of an employee.
The Irving, Texas-based engineering construction company argued that it could not be sued because it was working during wartime for the federal government, which is generally immune to lawsuits.
The high court disagreed. The majority said companies are protected when they are fulfilling government contracts, but that Fluor allegedly failed to carry out its duties in supervising Nayeb.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Alito wrote that Hencely’s lawsuit may intrude on the government’s wartime powers and decisions, including a policy requiring contractors to maximize employment of Afghans.
