Rockford firm gains $308 million for terrorist victims

By Stephen Anderson

A Rockford trial lawyer has prevailed in his six-year legal quest on behalf of military clients who were beaten and tortured by Iranians, but only an act of Congress will provide adequate compensation.

Daniel T. Gilbert, a member of the ISBA Traffic Laws and Courts Section Council, represented Loves Park developer Kurt Carlson, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, and five Navy divers who were held hostage for 17 days in Beirut in 1985.

A $308 million judgment against the Islamic Republic of Iran was ordered April 19 by federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington, D.C., for injuries and emotional trauma the plaintiffs suffered after the airplane they were on was hijacked between Athens and Rome.

In that incident, another Navy diver, Robert Dean Stethem, was executed and his body thrown from the plane at the Beirut airport by Hezbolah and Amal terrorists. A lawsuit by Stethem's family was consolidated with Gilbert's litigation.

"This is the largest award of money damages on a per diem basis out of all the judgments entered for living victims of terrorism to date," Gilbert said, but there is a catch.

The Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996, which enables victims and their families to sue perpetrators and sponsors of international terrorism for punitive damages, requires them to be named by Congress in legislation before the Treasury Department is authorized to pay them. Only Stethem qualifies, so far.

"We still have an uphill battle," Gilbert said. "Our hope is than the Senate and House will rectify the inadvertent omission of Kurt Carlson and the other plaintiffs."

The House has passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Donald Manzullo of Rockford to add their names and those of other living victims of terrorism. A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate, which has not acted on the House bill.

Gilbert had a solo practice in transportation law and medical malpractice when he took on the international terrorism case in 1996. Four years ago, complex personal injury lawyer Gregory E. Barrett became second chair.

Susan M. Witt of Rockford, a member of the ISBA Assembly and past chair of the Committee on Women and the Law, recently joined the firm, which is now the Gilbert & Witt Law Office, with Barrett of counsel.

During a week-long trial in Washington, the three lawyers called 25 witnesses. One of them was Rockford psychiatrist William Wood, who said the $308 million verdict is a fair one for the psychological and physical torture the men suffered.

"One can safely state that the bright promise and shining future that each one of these men possessed on the day that they boarded (the flight) was forever stolen from them by the terrorists," Wood said in court.

Gilbert added that the goals of the litigation were twofold. First was compensation "for the excruciating mental and physical pain they endured from repeated beatings at the hands of terrorists who were materially and financially funded by Iran," he said.

"Another goal," Gilbert added, "was to punish Iran by the only means that private citizens have available: the courts."

Barrett observed that the huge judgment indicates "the seriousness with which Judge Jackson and the federal judiciary view the conduct of Iran and other state sponsors of terrorism."

The size of the award also reflects recognition by the courts of the suffering experienced by the wives and children of the victims, Witt added.