Maxwell v. Islamic Republic of Iran

CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedMarch 29, 2024
DocketCivil Action No. 2022-0173
StatusPublished

This text of Maxwell v. Islamic Republic of Iran (Maxwell v. Islamic Republic of Iran) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maxwell v. Islamic Republic of Iran, (D.D.C. 2024).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

MAXWELL, et al., : : Plaintiffs, : Civil Action No.: 22-173 (RC) : v. : Re Document Nos.: 20, 29, 35 : THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, : : Defendant. :

MEMORANDUM OPINION

GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENT ON LIABILITY AND AN AWARD OF PUNITIVE DAMAGES; GRANTING MOTION TO SUBSTITUTE; ADOPTING IN PART SPECIAL MASTER’S REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

I. INTRODUCTION

In 1983 and 1984, two terrorist attacks targeted American servicemembers and embassy

employees stationed in Beirut, Lebanon. This Court, along with other courts in this Circuit, has

contended with the tragic impact of these bombings in a number of mass tort lawsuits brought

under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”). See, e.g., Barry v. Islamic Republic of

Iran (“Barry I”), 410 F. Supp. 3d 161 (D.D.C. 2019); Barry v. Islamic Republic of Iran (“Barry

II”), 437 F. Supp. 3d 15 (D.D.C. 2020). 1 Presently before the Court are the claims of over three

hundred individuals who were either injured—in some cases fatally—in these attacks while

members of the armed forces or acting in their capacity as a U.S. government employee or

contractor, or who are the immediate family members of such directly injured individuals.

1 Given the similarities between Barry II and this case, this opinion draws heavily from the Court’s opinion in Barry II without sentence-by-sentence citation. See Special Master’s Proposed Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law (“R. & R.”), ¶ 3, ECF No. 34 (“Barry [II] and this case . . . involve identical underlying facts and circumstances and similar injuries . . . .”). Defendant Iran has not entered an appearance in the more than two years since the suit was filed.

This Court must now decide whether to enter default judgment concerning liability, whether to

adopt the Special Master’s Report and Recommendation regarding compensatory damages, and

whether to award punitive damages to Plaintiffs. As set forth below, the Court finds that all

Plaintiffs but two have established liability and will enter default judgment concerning these

individuals; adopts in part the Special Master’s suggested damages awards; and awards punitive

damages in part.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Factual History

The directly injured Plaintiffs were injured in the 1983 terrorist attack on the U.S.

Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, and/or the attack on the U.S. Embassy Annex in East Beirut the

following year. 2 Compl. ¶¶ 1, 7, ECF No. 4. The bombing of the U.S. Embassy on April 18,

2 As this Court explained in Barry I, 410 F. Supp. 3d at 168 n.1, and Barry II, 437 F. Supp. 3d at 26 n.5, the Federal Rules of Evidence authorize a court to take judicial notice of “adjudicative facts” “not subject to reasonable dispute” that are “capable of accurate and ready determination by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned,” Fed. R. Evid. 201(b), including “court records in related proceedings,” Rimkus v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 750 F. Supp. 2d 163, 171 (D.D.C. 2010) (citing 29 Am. Jur. 2d Evidence § 151 (2010)); Booth v. Fletcher, 101 F.2d 676, 679 n.2 (D.C. Cir. 1938); 2 McCormick on Evidence § 332 (6th ed. 2009)). Because of the number of individuals affected by terrorist attacks, and the associated “flood of cases that they generate,” courts in this Circuit resolving FSIA cases have “regularly” taken judicial notice of the record in related cases. Goldstein v. Islamic Republic of Iran, No. 16- CV-2507 (CRC), 2018 WL 6329452, at *2 (D.D.C. Dec. 4, 2018) (citing Rimkus, 750 F. Supp. 2d at 171); see also Murphy v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 740 F. Supp. 2d 51, 58–59 (D.D.C. 2010); Brewer v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 664 F. Supp. 2d 43, 47 (D.D.C. 2009); Estate of Heiser v. Islamic Republic of Iran (“Heiser I”), 466 F. Supp. 2d 229, 262–63 (D.D.C. 2006). Significantly, “courts have taken notice of facts found in earlier proceedings in this District even when those proceedings have taken place in front of a different judge.” Foley v. Syrian Arab Republic, 249 F. Supp. 3d 186, 191 (D.D.C. 2017) (citing Brewer, 664 F. Supp. 2d at 54). Other courts in this Circuit have resolved numerous cases arising out of the 1983 and 1984 bombings in Beirut, Lebanon. See, e.g., Brewer, 664 F. Supp. 2d at 46 (suit involving survivor of 1984 Annex bombing); Wagner v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 172 F. Supp. 2d 128, 130–33 (D.D.C. 2001) (suit on behalf of individual killed in 1984 Annex bombing); Estate of

2 1983, “was the first large-scale attack against a United States Embassy anywhere in the world.”

Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran (“Dammarell I”), 281 F. Supp. 2d 105, 111 (D.D.C.

2003). At just past 1:00 p.m. on that date, a vehicle “laden with hundreds of pounds of

explosives” was driven into the main entrance of the Embassy, whereupon it “exploded with a

force so powerful that seven floors in the center section of the crescent-shaped building

collapsed.” Id.; see also Salazar v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 370 F. Supp. 2d 105 (D.D.C. 2005)

(taking judicial notice of the Dammarell court’s factual findings regarding the 1983 attack). As a

result of this attack, over sixty individuals were fatally wounded and over one hundred others

were injured. Dammarell I, 281 F. Supp. 2d at 111.

After the 1983 attack, the operations of the U.S. embassy were transferred to the

Embassy Annex, located in a different part of the city that was believed to be safer. See Estate of

Doe I, 808 F. Supp. 2d at 7. But tragedy struck once more on September 20, 1984. That

morning, the driver of a vehicle loaded with explosives evaded the concrete barriers put up as

protection, ignored orders to halt, and detonated a bomb estimated to contain approximately

1500 kilograms of explosives. See Barry I, 410 F. Supp. 3d at 169 (citing Brewer v. Islamic

Republic of Iran, 664 F. Supp. 2d 43, 47 (D.D.C. 2009); Wagner v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 172

F. Supp. 2d 128, 132 (D.D.C. 2001)). The explosion, which “demolished the embassy building,”

Doe v. Islamic Republic of Iran (“Estate of Doe I”), 808 F. Supp. 2d 1, 7 (D.D.C. 2011) (suit by family members and individuals killed or injured in 1983 or 1984 attacks); Dammarell v. Islamic Republic of Iran (“Dammarell I”), 281 F. Supp. 2d 105, 108–113 (D.D.C. 2003) (suit involving over eighty survivors of 1983 Embassy attack). In resolving these and other prior suits, courts in this Circuit have offered detailed factual reporting of the attacks. Thus, in this section and throughout this opinion, the Court takes judicial notice of these and related cases to draw its own, independent findings of fact in the instant case. See Rimkus, 750 F. Supp. 2d at 172 (“[C]ourts in FSIA litigation” may, in resolving “subsequent related cases,” properly “rely upon the evidence presented in earlier litigation—without necessitating the formality of having that evidence reproduced—to reach their own, independent findings of fact in the cases before them.” (citing Murphy, 740 F. Supp. 2d at 58–59)).

3 Wagner, 172 F. Supp. 2d at 132, killed over ten individuals and injured over fifty others, see

Estate of Doe I, 808 F. Supp.

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