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Bloomberg Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- KBR Inc. and its former parent, Halliburton Co., filed a request in court to tell a jury that the U.S. Army and Iraqi terrorists are responsible for deaths and injuries to company truck drivers in Iraq in 2004.
Families of the dead and injured drivers claim in a federal lawsuit that KBR and Halliburton officials sent unarmed civilians into active-combat zones in April 2004 knowing they would be attacked and possibly killed. The contractors and their families say Houston-based KBR misrepresented the risk and should be held accountable.
The military isn’t a party to the lawsuit, and the action by Halliburton and KBR won’t force the army to defend its conduct in court. The companies are using a Texas law that lets juries consider whether others bear responsibility for some of a victim’s injuries, even if those third parties aren’t named in the lawsuit.
“To the extent that any person or entity bears any legal liability as asserted by the plaintiffs, the United States caused or contributed to the injuries for which plaintiffs seek recovery and is a responsible third party,” company lawyer Robert Meadows said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Houston after business hours yesterday.
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The companies’ court filing “selectively quotes” from the army’s report, omitting findings Halliburton and KBR “knew for two days that armed insurgents were present in or around the exact locations where the convoys were attacked,” Allen said.
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