San Diego Lawyers Sue Saddam Hussein on Behalf of Former Worker in Kuwait

A family from India that fled Kuwait in the wake of the Gulf War filed suit Thursday in federal court in San Diego, claiming that Iraqi soldiers terrorized them and demanding that Iraq and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein pay up--to the tune of more than $100 million in damages.

The unusual suit, filed by two San Diego lawyers, claims that Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait cost engineer Geevarghese Idicheria his job, his family’s $84,537 savings and the possibility of future income.

Then, it said, before Idicheria, his wife and two children fled the next month for refugee camps in Jordan, Iraqi soldiers tried to molest his wife, held a rifle to his head, shot at him and commandeered his car.

It asks for $40 million in punitive damages against Hussein.

Chetan P. Tanna, one of the two lawyers who filed the case, said Thursday that it was a legitimate lawsuit. He said the Idicheria family, like thousands of other guest workers in Kuwait, endured terror, the misery of a refugee camp and lost everything along the way.

“We are dead serious about this case,” Tanna said. “It is not a publicity stunt.”

Still, Tanna conceded that there might be formidable legal roadblocks ahead. To begin with, Tanna said, it’s unclear who is supposed to be served on Hussein’s behalf with a copy of the suit.

“It will go through the State Department, through diplomatic sources, and it will be sent to the Iraqi Embassy,” Tanna said. “But I don’t know if one exists in Washington right now. If not, in London or Karachi or somewhere.”

American courts traditionally have frowned on suits by private people against foreign governments, saying disputes that involve nations are best left to the President and the State Department to resolve. Tanna said he is researching that issue.

Beyond that, American law demands that, in federal court, the person suing must show that the person being sued had “minimum contacts” with the place where the suit was brought, or the case will be dismissed.

Indicheria has never been to San Diego, Tanna said. But he said he is hoping the San Diego court will take the case up international law, including United Nations resolutions passed in the wake of the Gulf War directing that Iraq pay for war damages and economic losses.

Since those resolutions have the force of treaties, and any federal court in the United States can interpret treaties, Tanna said, he filed the case in San Diego. Besides, “Our offices are here,” he said.

There was one other practical concern, Tanna said. He and his law partner, Steven S. Kane, the other lawyer in the case, wondered originally whether to file the suit in the courts in India or the United States.

But they opted for American courts on the belief that there are tied-up Iraqi assets in the United States that could be seized to pay for a multimillion-dollar judgment, Tanna said. There just aren’t those kinds of assets in India, he said.

Also, he said, Indian courts do not allow a “substantial” recovery for emotional distress.

The lawsuit actually stemmed from an advertisement in the San Diego telephone book, Tanna said. Two weeks after Iraq invaded Kuwait, an Indian refugee who had somehow made it to San Diego saw Tanna’s ad, which says that he speaks three languages besides English--Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu--and mentions his affiliation with a law office in India.

That refugee called Tanna and, over the next couple weeks, Tanna and Kane learned first-hand of the refugees’ plight. The two lawyers went to Kerala, a state in southwestern India where many of the Kuwaiti refugees were from, including the Idicheria family.

Besides the Idicheria suit, Tanna said, he is considering filing claims for 15 other families.

Kane’s brother-in-law is U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado), but Hunter played no part in developing the Indicheria lawsuit, Kane said.

Idicheria and his family have returned to their hometown in Kerala, called Nariyapuram, Tanna said. Idicheria, 37, had lived in Kuwait since February, 1983. He had worked since March, 1988, as an electrical power engineer with the Kuwaiti Ministry of Communications, earning about $1,500 a month, according to the suit.