Judge rules for Beirut blast kin

[thedrifter]

Article ran : 05/31/2003
Judge rules for Beirut blast kin
By ROSELEE PAPANDREA
DAILY NEWS STAFF
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Friday that victims and families of American troops killed in the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing be compensated by Iran.

The questions that remain are how much money the families will receive and how the money will be taken from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth is expected to make a decision about the amount before the 20th anniversary of the bombing on Oct. 23, said attorney Steven R. Perles of Washington, D.C.

Perles, who specializes in international law, and attorney Thomas Fortune Fay of Washington, D.C., who practices personal injury law, are representing 153 families and injured survivors of the attack.

Many of those families still live in Jacksonville, Perles said. Most of the service members killed or injured in the blast were from Camp Lejeune and New River Air Station.

"The court today said that Iran did this," Perles said. "They are responsible. They are held liable."

The trial to determine liability was held March 17-18 in Washington, D.C. Iranian officials did not respond to the lawsuit.

The judge's ruling left Lynn Smith Derbyshire of Virginia feeling like justice was served. Derbyshire's older brother, Capt. Vincent Smith, was one of the 241 service members killed in the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks.

Smith, who was 30 at the time, was part of Camp Lejeune's 24th Marine Amphibious Unit that was sent to Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission in May 1983. The unit's name has since been changed to 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

"I think the whole family feels that having Judge Lamberth rule this way is a vindication for us," Derbyshire said. "It's a sense of justice after all of these years. Finally, someone has been named a guilty party. It's a huge catharsis for us."

For almost 20 years, Derbyshire and relatives of other victims have been waiting for someone to blame. Now, the court has done that for them.

"To have him taken from us in such a violent way and to not really be able to name a guilty person has been difficult," she said. "It's a huge sense of justice to say that the government of Iran is the guilty party."

The second phase of the lawsuit, which will determine how much compensation the families will receive, isn't as important to Derbyshire.

"Obviously, to me, it's not about the money," she said. "I do think that there is a huge part of justice in terms of the guilty party paying compensation. But if we don't ever get that, I still will feel vindicated from what happened (Friday)."

In order to expedite the damages portion of the court proceedings, masters or temporary judges will be assigned to different geographic regions. Masters are usually experienced attorneys or retired judges, Perles said.

"It would take two days to present damages for each family," Perles said. "It would be two years of full-time work if a single judge did it."

Each master will hear about 12 to 15 cases. The families will be represented by attorneys in those regions, including some from Jacksonville. Perles said he didn't know at this time which Jacksonville attorneys would be representing families.

"This way the families only have to travel locally, and we should be through the damages phase by the anniversary of the bombing," he said.

Perles said there were two difficult aspects of the lawsuit.

"One is a purely legal question regarding whether an active-duty military person can avail themselves of this remedy," Perles said. "The court said 'yes' provided that they were under the peacetime rules of engagement."

He specified that if a Marine or other service member was killed in action during the war in Iraq, that Marine's family couldn't be compensated in the same way because the war wasn't part of a peacetime mission.

The other difficult part of the case is collecting the money that the judge will award the families, Perles said.

"How do you make the government of Iran pay? We will look for hidden Iranian assets in United States or Iranian assets in third countries where we think the government might be sympathetic to an enforcement action," Perles said.

In the meantime, Derbyshire will continue to speak out about the Beirut bombing because she said it's the only way to stop terrorism.

"I don't think you can have true justice without awareness," she said. "I don't think that people realize to the full extent that the government of Iran was involved with the bombing. I think until people are made aware of that in a broad context, the war on terrorism is never going to be won."

Families of Beirut victims who are interested in joining the litigation can contact Perles at (202) 745-1300.



Sempers,

Roger