Legal News

Fifth Circuit: Halliburton Rape Case Will Head to Court

By Ashby Jones

When it comes to writing about legal opinions concerning whether a case should get sent to arbitration, we try to be judicious. But occasionally, a case comes along with facts that are just too interesting — too provocative — to be ignored. Such is the case today.

The news: the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday ruled that a Texas woman who alleges she was gang-raped by co-workers while working for military contractor KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton, in Iraq will go to court instead of arbitration. Click here for the AP story.

We blogged about the story back in April, just after the Fifth Circuit arguments.

The woman, Jamie Leigh Jones, sued Halliburton and several subsidiaries in 2005. Jones worked as a clerical worker for KBR at a Halliburton office in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and alleges she was drugged and raped by several Halliburton workers in her company barracks bedroom. She also claims she was placed under armed guard and held in a “prison-like container” for hours after reporting the alleged attack.

Halliburton says Jones signed an agreement that requires all of her claims against the companies stemming from the alleged rape to be resolved through private arbitration.

Jones's lawyer, Daniel Ross, argued at the lower-court level that the clause should not apply to a claim involving sexual assault because it was not a "work-related" matter. In his decision, federal district court judge Keith Ellison found in her favor, writing: "This court does not believe that plaintiff's bedroom should be considered the workplace, even though her housing was provided by her employer."

On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit agreed. Click here for the opinion. Wrote judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale:

Under these circumstances, the outer limits of the "related to" language of the arbitration provision have been tested, and breached. Halliburton/KBR essentially asks this court to read the arbitration provision so broadly as to encompass any claim related to Jones' employer, or any incident that happened during her employment, but that is not the language of the contract. We do not hold that, as a matter of law, sexual-assault allegations can never "relate to" someone's employment. For this action, however, Jones' allegations do not "touch matters" related to her employment, let alone have a "significant relationship" to her employment contract.

“This is wonderful news, not only for me but for those who have been bound into mandatory arbitrations,” Jones wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Halliburton did not immediately respond to the AP’s call for comment Tuesday. KBR spokeswoman Heather L. Browne said the company has not fully reviewed the court’s decision and declined to comment.

Vinson & Elkins’s Carl Jordan and Law Blog All-Name team member Shadow Sloan represented Halliburton. Jones is represented by L. Todd Kelly of the Kelly Law Firm and Paul Waldner at Vickery, Waldner & Mallia.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).