A federal judge in Pittsburgh has refused to apply Iraqi law in a wrongful death suit brought by the parents of an American soldier who was electrocuted in a shower at his Baghdad base as a result of allegedly shoddy work by a Texas-based contractor.
In her 39-page opinion in Harris v. Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc., U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer found that the Iraqi Civil Code does not apply because the death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth occurred in January 2008, when the Coalition Provisional Authority orders imposed during the U.S. occupation were still in place.
