Supreme Court Clears Way for Wounded Vet's Lawsuit Against Contractor Over 2016 Suicide Bombing

A veteran whose skull was fractured by shrapnel from a suicide bombing at Bagram Airfield can sue the government contractor whose employee built the explosive, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The 6-3 decision narrows the legal shield that defense contractors have long used to block negligence claims.

Former Army Spc. Winston Hencely was wounded on a Veterans Day weekend in 2016 when he stopped Ahmad Nayeb, a contractor employee, as Nayeb attempted to detonate an explosive vest at a five-kilometer race on the base. Nayeb detonated the device when confronted, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, court documents show. The projectiles fractured Hencely's skull and tore through his brain, leaving him with limited use of the left side of his body, abnormal brainwaves, seizures and traumatic brain injury, according to his lawyers.

For Treasure Coast residents — including the thousands of veterans in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties who have deployed to combat zones under contractor-heavy logistics operations — the ruling establishes that companies cannot automatically hide behind their government client when an Army investigation has already faulted their supervision. An Army inquiry found that Nayeb, an Afghan national, built the vest on the job site inside Bagram and that his employer, Fluor Corporation, failed to supervise him, court documents say.

Hencely sued Fluor, an Irving, Texas-based engineering and construction company, in South Carolina, where two subsidiaries are based, alleging negligent supervision, negligent entrustment of tools and negligent retention. Fluor argued it could not be sued because it was operating under a federal wartime contract and the federal government is generally immune from lawsuits.

The majority disagreed. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Contractors retain immunity when faithfully fulfilling government directives, the court held. But Fluor's alleged failure to supervise Nayeb fell outside that protection.

Justices Samuel Alito, John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Alito wrote that Hencely's lawsuit risks intruding on the government's wartime decision-making, including a policy requiring contractors to maximize the employment of Afghan nationals.

The case now returns to lower courts for further proceedings.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.