Corboy & Demetrio Obtains $80 Million Judgment against Iranian Government in Land Mine Blast Killing U.S. Soldier and Injuring Platoon Leader
During the pandemic, in a federal trial conducted completely remotely, Managing Partner Ken Lumb stood at a podium in his office at Corboy & Demetrio and presented his case on behalf of the family of a deceased US Army soldier and his injured platoon leader seeking to hold the Iranian government liable for the death and injuries.
U.S. Army Sergeant (SGT) Joshua Soto, 25, died when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in a terrorist attack carried out on June 16, 2009, in Tallil, Iraq. Soto’s platoon leader, Captain (CPT) Miles M. Murray, also 25, was injured in the attack. “The attack involved a particularly deadly IED known as an explosively formed penetrator, which was supplied by Iran to its proxies in Iraq,” Lumb said.
Both soldiers were on a non-combat mission to assist in the transfer of authority to Iraqi units and were escorting the Provisional Reconstruction Team travel. On the day of the attack, they were part of a convoy transporting Iraqi police trainers to the city of Rumaitha to train Iraqi police cadets.
The civil lawsuit, filed against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS), alleges the defendants are liable for Soto’s wrongful death and Murray’s injuries pursuant to the Terrorism Exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
“The defendants planned, conspired and made preparations to murder American citizens by detonating roadside bombs,” said Lumb, who represents Soto’s family and Murray. “As their vehicle drove past the device, the defendants detonated it, with actual knowledge that they were targeting American citizens,” Lumb said.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants did so “with actual knowledge that their agents and employees and their Iraqi clients or proxies had killed and injured numerous U.S. citizens in terrorist attacks and that additional U.S. citizens and innocent civilians would be killed and injured as a result of their aiding abetting and providing material support and resources to insurgents in Iraq.”
The lawsuit alleges the attack was carried out, in part, by an Iranian operative and by Iraqi insurgents using material support and resources provided by the Islamic Republic of Iran for the commission of acts of extrajudicial killing.
From 1983 until the present, Iran has been continuously designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. State Department, and the defendants provided massive financial support to insurgents within Iraq with the specific intention of causing and facilitating the commission of acts of extrajudicial killing and international terrorism, including the attack on Soto and Murray.
During the trial, Lumb called numerous witnesses remotely, including active-duty Army officers and experts on explosive ordnance and on Iranian support for terrorism.
The defendants failed to appear.
On March 31, 2024, U.S. District Judge, Hon. Andrea R. Wood, granted Lumb’s request for a default judgment. The Court awarded Plaintiff Platoon Leader Miles Murray $7 million for pain and suffering and $21 million in punitive damages. The judge awarded Plaintiff Thelma Soto, Joshua Soto’s widow, damages of $8 million and punitive damages of $24 million. She was also awarded, in her capacity as the representative of her minor son Jayden W. Soto, $5 million in damages and $15 million in punitive damages. The total award for the soldiers and the estate: $80 million.
Corboy & Demetrio’s request for a default judgment was granted by Hon. Andrea R. Wood, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, on March 31, 2024.
Case 1:15CV-08410 Soto v. Islamic Republic of Iran