Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined a multistate coalition in support of a wounded Army veteran’s case before the Supreme Court. The case targets a military contractor accused of negligence that led to a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan.
The lawsuit stems from a 2016 attack at Bagram Airfield during a Veterans Day gathering, where an employee of the Fluor Corporation detonated an explosive device in a suicide attack, killing five American soldiers and injuring fifteen others.
Among the wounded was Staff Sgt. Winston Hencely, who is now suing Fluor for failing to prevent the attack, according to a recent press release from Paxton’s office.
The bomber, Ahmad Nayeb, was allegedly a former Taliban insurgent hired by the Fluor company, a private contractor supporting U.S. military operations overseas. A military investigation concluded that the company failed to properly screen or supervise Nayeb, who used materials directly from the base to build the bomb and used his job status to gain unauthorized access to restricted areas on the airfield.
Hencely filed his lawsuit under South Carolina’s state laws, but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals responded by dismissing the case, apparently claiming that the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) is a barrier to state-level claims. Paxton disagreed, stating that the FTCA explicitly excludes independent contractors like Fluor and should not shield them from any legal accountability, especially in such an important case that took the lives of five Americans.
“The brave people who serve our country like Winston Hencely deserve justice when harmed by the reckless actions of military contractors,” Paxton said in the news release.
“The Fluor Corporation’s inaction negligently endangered American soldiers, and the Fourth Circuit inexplicably ignored federal law in an attempt to shield the contractor from accountability. I will always support our veterans and fight back against judicial overreach that undermines the rule of law,” he added.
Paxton has now joined a group of attorneys general from several states in a West Virginia-led brief calling on the Supreme Court to take up the case. The brief argues that the lower court’s ruling misinterpreted federal law and undermined both state authority and the rights of the victims.