HONOLULU (KHON2) — A federal judge heard closing arguments in a case to decide on any damages for the families impacted by the Red Hill fuel spill. The outcome of this case will likely impact the ones that follow, with 7,500 plaintiffs suing the government.
It was a sense of relief, the ending of a trial for families sharing the harms they said were caused by contaminated water.
Army Major Mandy Feindt spoke on behalf of her husband, Patrick Feindt, and her two children who said they got sick from the water contaminated with jet fuel. This is the first trial seeking compensation against the government for emotional and physical damages.
“They were poisoned by my own employer. As a mother of very sick children, two young children, still wearing the uniform has been really tough,” said Feindt. “I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to walk in this courtroom and to tell, to tell our truth.”
The government has taken accountability and admitted that human errors caused the fuel spill that would contaminate the Navy’s water system.
The government’s lawyers maintain exposure to the jet fuel was not enough to cause the medical conditions the families allege. They cited their witness experts who said jet fuel effects on the body could usually clear up within one or two days after exposure ends.
During closing arguments, the Plaintiff’s Attorney Kristina Baehr focused on the pain and suffering, as well as mental anguish the families faced, and placed a dollar value on those hardships.
The compensation was different for each plaintiff, but some of the plaintiffs sought upwards of a million dollars.
Baehr said, “You can’t have deterrence without compensation, our clients came not to punish but to protect.”
The seventeen plaintiffs in the case will now wait on Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi’s ruling on damages, that decision will likely be made in the summer.