“Indeed, the government goes further, underscoring … that the D.C. Circuit ‘made similar errors’ to those that led this court to reverse in Taamneh,” the companies said in a supplemental brief.
The companies had first urged the Supreme Court to grant a GVR in a July 2023 petition for certiorari challenging a January 2022 D.C. Circuit ruling that revived claims a group of injured U.S. servicemembers and families of deceased servicemembers initiated back in 2017.
The servicemembers and families had sued the companies for allegedly providing medical goods and funds to Iraq’s Health Ministry, which the allegedly Hezbollah-linked military group, Jaysh al-Mahdi, had taken over. The families claimed that the companies secured lucrative medical supply contracts with the Iraqi government through payments and gifts to Jaysh al-Mahdi, ultimately helping fund terrorist attacks between 2005 and 2011.
A D.C federal court ruled in the companies’ favor, but the D.C. Circuit overturned and remanded that ruling for three reasons, such as that the servicemembers sufficiently alleged at the motion to dismiss stage that the companies “knowingly provided substantial assistance” to Jaysh al-Mahdi.
