Al Shimari v. CACI International, Inc.

933 F. Supp. 2d 793, 2013 WL 1234177, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47177
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedMarch 19, 2013
DocketCase No. 1:08-cv-00827-GBL-JFA
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 933 F. Supp. 2d 793 (Al Shimari v. CACI International, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Al Shimari v. CACI International, Inc., 933 F. Supp. 2d 793, 2013 WL 1234177, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47177 (E.D. Va. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

GERALD BRUCE LEE, District Judge.

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Defendant CACI Premier Technology, Inc.’s (“CACI PT”) Motion for Reconsideration of the Court’s Order Denying Defendants’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Based on the Statute of Limitations.1 (Dkt. No. 161.) This case concerns the well-publicized Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. In this action, four previously detained Iraqi citizens bring claims arising under common law and the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) against military defense contractor CACI PT for alleged abuse and torture during their detention in Abu Ghraib, Iraq.

There are two issues before the Court. The first issue is whether the Court should apply Ohio or Virginia law to Plaintiffs Taha Yaseen Arraq Rashid, Sa’ad Hamza Hantoosh Al-Zuba’e, and Salah Hasan Nusaif Jasim Al-Ejaili’s (“Rashid Plaintiffs”) common law claims, as these plaintiffs joined this action by amended complaint after the case was transferred from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. (“Southern District of Ohio”) pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a).2 The Court holds that Ohio law does not apply to the Rashid Plaintiffs’ common law claims because these plaintiffs joined the case after it was transferred from the Southern District of Ohio. Thus, their claims are subject to Virginia law.

Having concluded that Virginia law applies, the second issue is whether to grant Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration of this Court’s Order dated November 25, 2008, which denied Defendants CACI International, Inc. and CACI PT’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Based on the Statute of Limitations (“2008 Order”). (Dkt. No. 76). In the 2008 Order, the Court held that the Rashid Plaintiffs’ common law claims were not barred by the applicable statute of limitations because Virginia law recognized cross-jurisdictional equitable tolling. (Id.) In light of the recent Virginia Supreme Court decision in [796]*796Casey v. Merck, 283 Va. 411, 722 S.E.2d 842 (2012), the Court grants Defendant’s Motion for Reconsideration. Casey clarified that Virginia has never recognized cross-jurisdictional equitable tolling. Therefore, the Rashid Plaintiffs’ common law claims were not tolled during the pendency of their participation in a related class action pending in a different jurisdiction. Thus, their claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

I. BACKGROUND

This case arises from claims asserted by suspected enemy combatants, Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari, Taha Yaseen Arraq Rashid, Sa’ad Hamza Hantoosh AlZuba’e, and Salah Hasan Nusaif Jasim AlEjaili, who assert that they were detained, interrogated, and tortured by CACI PT, a government contractor, and United States soldiers. (2d Am. Compl. ¶¶ 1, 5-7, 11, 26, 45, 54, Dkt. No. 177.)

In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, a multinational coalition force led by troops from the United States and Great Britain invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. Al Shimari v. CACI Premier Tech., Inc., 657 F.Supp.2d 700, 705 (E.D.Va.2009). After the invasion, the United States military commandeered the Abu Ghraib prison and used it to detain and interrogate persons thought to have information about the anti-Coalition insurgency. Al Shimari v. CACI Int'l Inc., 679 F.3d 205, 209 (4th Cir.2012) (en banc). The United States contracted with CACI PT to help the military interrogate and communicate with these detainees. Id. In the spring of 2004, a well-publicized prison abuse scandal revealed that “detainees at the ‘hard site’ within Abu Ghraib prison were brutally tortured and abused.” (2d Am. Compl. ¶ 1.)

All four Plaintiffs were released from Abu Ghraib between February 1, 2004, and March 27, 2008, without ever being charged with any crime. (Id. ¶ 22, 25, 44, 53, 63.) On June 30, 2008, Plaintiff Al Shimari tiled this action in the Southern District of Ohio against Defendants CACI International, a Delaware corporation with its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and CACI PT, its wholly-owned subsidiary located in Arlington, Virginia. (See id. ¶¶ 8-9.) In his Complaint, Al Shimari alleged that CACI PT employees, including Steven Stefanowicz, Daniel Johnson, and Timothy Dugan, conspired with each other, CACI International, Inc., and military personnel to torture and inflict harm on Plaintiffs and other detainees. (2d Am. Compl. ¶¶ 64-65, 80.) Al Shimari brings common law tort and civil conspiracy claims and claims arising'under the ATS.3 (Id. ¶¶ 130-221.)

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In May and June 2008, Plaintiffs’ counsel filed four individual, single-plaintiff cases in California, Washington, Maryland, and Ohio.4 (O’Connor Decl. ¶ 7, Dkt. No. 47; Def.’s Reply at 7.) Notably, Plaintiff Al Shimari, who filed his action in the Southern District of Ohio, was the only plaintiff [797]*797to have been a party to any of the four individual suits filed. (Id.) In June 2008, the CACI Defendants filed motions seeking to transfer each of the four cases to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (“Eastern District of Virginia”) under § 1404(a). (Id. ¶¶ 9-12.) The Ohio action was transferred first and assigned to this Court. The Washington and California cases were also transferred to the Eastern District of Virginia but assigned to different judges. (Id. ¶¶ 13-14.) Thereafter, the parties sought to have the cases consolidated before one judge. (Id.) Eventually, the California and Washington actions were voluntarily dismissed, leaving A1 Shimari as the sole Plaintiff against the CACI Defendants. (Id.) On September 15, 2008, Plaintiffs’ counsel filed an amended complaint adding the Rashid Plaintiffs to the pending A1 Shimari action. (See Dkt. No. 28.) This was the first time that the Rashid Plaintiffs presented claims against the CACI Defendants, as neither plaintiff was a party to the previously transferred action. (Def.’s Reply at 8.)

On October 10, 2008, Defendant filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment Based on the Statute of Limitations. (Dkt. No. 44.) In that motion, Defendant sought to bar the Rashid Plaintiffs from asserting their common law claims due to Virginia’s two-year statute of limitations period for common law torts. Notably, Plaintiff A1 Shimari, who filed his case in the Southern District of Ohio, was not subject to Defendant’s Motion,5 (Def.’s Reply at 7.) At that time, the Rashid Plaintiffs argued they were not barred by Virginia’s statute of limitations period because their claims were equitably tolled while they remained putative members of the Saleh class action in California.6

On November 25, 2008, the Court issued its 2008 Order denying Defendants’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment with respect to the Rashid Plaintiffs’ common law tort claims. (See Dkt. No. 76.) In the 2008 Order, the Court held that the Rashid Plaintiffs’ common law claims were subject to equitable tolling under Virginia law, as Plaintiffs were putative members in a class action filed in another jurisdiction before the Virginia two-year limitations period elapsed. In doing so, me Court held that

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933 F. Supp. 2d 793, 2013 WL 1234177, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/al-shimari-v-caci-international-inc-vaed-2013.