Lawsuit: Navy leadership ‘denied and dismissed their concerns,’ violated federal law
HONOLULU, Aug. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Injured U.S. military families and civilians today filed the first federal lawsuit against the Navy over the catastrophic contamination of the water supply near the Red Hill fuel storage facility in Hawai’i in 2021, according to their attorneys at Just Well Law, PLLC and the Hosoda Law Group.
Filed in Honolulu federal court, the lawsuit accuses the Navy of releasing thousands of gallons of jet fuel and other contaminants directly into the families’ drinking water at least twice in 2021. As the four families named in the lawsuit continue to suffer from multiple medical conditions, the Navy still has not fully disclosed the scope of the contamination, recognized that affected families are still sick, or provided appropriate medical care, the lawsuit asserts.
Plaintiffs in the case are Patrick Feindt, Jr., and his minor children, Nastasia Freeman and her minor children, Jamie Simic, and her minor children, and Ariana Wyatt, and her minor child. The once-healthy plaintiffs reported seizures, gastrointestinal disorders, neurological issues, burns, rashes, lesions, thyroid abnormalities, migraines, neurobehavioral challenges, and other maladies, the lawsuit asserts. All of the families were evacuated from their contaminated homes in Hawaii. They were forced to move back into those homes, only to get sick again, and now reside elsewhere, according to the complaint.
The families are represented by Kristina S. Baehr and James Baehr, of Just Well Law, PLLC, of Austin, Texas, and Lyle S. Hosoda, Kourtney H. Wong, Spencer J. Lau, and Thurston A. Kino, of the Hosoda Law Group, of Honolulu. The law firms also represent hundreds more plaintiffs who have filed pre-litigation SF-95 administrative claim forms with the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) and who will be added to the suit.
According to the complaint, “Throughout 2021, as more than 93,000 military service members, their family members, and civilians relied on the government for safe water on the island of O`ahu, the Navy harbored toxic secrets. As the Feindt, Freeman, Simic, and Wyatt families and too many others like them would discover, the water they drank and bathed in was dangerously contaminated. And government officials knew all along… While the government failed to disclose the contamination as required by federal law, these families continued to ingest and immerse themselves in the toxic water.”
The lawsuit, which alleges negligence, nuisance, medical negligence, failure to treat, delayed care, and infliction of emotional distress by the government, was filed after the plaintiffs exhausted administrative remedies under the FTCA.
The lawsuit alleges, “As these families became sicker from water, the government compounded the families’ suffering. First, Navy leadership denied and dismissed their concerns. The families’ questions and concerns were ignored or minimized. Then the Navy denied the families even the most basic standard of care when they turned to military medical providers for help. Military facilities recorded symptoms but failed to run standard labs to check liver function, kidney function, and complete blood count.”
The case is Patrick Feindt, Jr., et al., v. The United States of America, Case No. 1:22-cv-0039, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawai’i.
Contact: Erin Powers, Powers MediaWorks LLC, for Just Well Law and the Hosoda Law Group, [email protected], 281.703.6000.
SOURCE Just Well Law, PLLC
