Attorney David Boies, and the legal team that has long championed the case of the late Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, are expected to file a wrongful-death suit against the troubled aerospace colossus, Fortune has learned. A little over a year ago, after giving two days of testimony in a long-running action versus Boeing, Barnett was found dead after spending the entire night in his Clemson orange Dodge Ram truck, his finger on the trigger of a silver Smith & Wesson pistol and a note sitting next to his body. In May, an investigation by the Charleston Police Department found that Barnett had committed suicide by putting by putting a bullet through his head. (You can read the full story of Barnett’s life and tragic death in our feature here.)
Fortune is the first to report the news of the expected suit and Boies’s involvement. When asked for comment, Boeing provided the following statement to Fortune: “We are saddened by John Barnett’s death and extend our condolences to his family.”
Barnett’s passing didn’t end his crusade to make Boeing expose blatant violations of its own policies and procedures that he claims to have experienced in his seven years at the 787 Dreamliner factory in North Charleston, S.C. Starting in 2017, just before Barnett left Boeing due to the onset of PTSD and panic and anxiety attacks, Charleston attorneys Rob Turkewitz and Brian Knowles sued Boeing on a so-called AIR21 complaint under an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) law that protects whistleblowers from retaliation by their employers. But the wrongful-death suit versus Boeing is a new action that’s being introduced in addition to the OSHA or regulatory suit. The team will strive to prove “causation,” showing that Boeing’s specific actions caused the workplace stress that led Barnett to suicide. And the Turkewitz-Knowles duo added big-time firepower by engaging Boies Schiller to join the campaign—especially in getting the 84-year old founder who’d won a landmark antitrust case for the U.S. Justice Department against Microsoft, represented the Al Gore campaign in the 2000 Florida presidential recount, and garnered big settlements for the Jeffrey Epstein victims to take a leading role in both cases. (Boies, it should also be noted, stirred controversy for his representation of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who’s serving time for sexual offenses, and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.)
The OSHA and new wrongful-death suit each seek financial damages on behalf of Barnett’s estate, including Vicky Stokes and his brothers Rodney, Michael, and Robbie Barnett. “When we got the police and autopsy reports concluding that John had taken his own life, Brian and I issued a press release expressing our sadness and stating that ‘while Boeing may not have pulled the trigger, the company is legally responsible for his death,'” Turkewitz told Fortune. Boeing greatly hardened its stance, he says, after it became clear that the Barnett lawyers were also seeking to file a wrongful-death case.
Up against what he characterizes as a small army of Boeing lawyers, Turkewitz and Knowles decided they needed to engage powerful reinforcements. So Turkewitz turned to his old friend Boies. The two had collaborated in the late 1990s, securing a big verdict in an asbestos liability case in New York City. “David’s one of the best lawyers in America,” said Turkewitz. “He got to know the Barnett family. He took the case not because the dollars are huge but because of the message we’d be sending.” Boies is working closely on the cases with Boies Schiller managing partner Sigrid McCawley.
Boies blasts “the old Boeing arrogance”
When this writer interviewed Boies in mid-March at his rambling country home set in horse country north of Manhattan in Amonk, N.Y., the litigator was in full reformer mode. Boies, who’d turned 84 the previous week, insisted that Barnett was a hero who embodied just the kind of dedication to diligently following safety rules that Boeing now needs to restore its reputation. Attired in a vintage blue suit over a red-and-green-plaid work shirt and Skechers, Boies told me, “He wasn’t looking for anything for himself. He was just looking to make airplanes safe. And they immediately wanted to bury him because they considered any kind of criticism a threat. If they’d listened to people like Barnett all along, they wouldn’t have had the problems that injured them so badly.”
Boies says that in the litigation, Boeing adopted a “scorched-earth policy” that “you see from time to time, but thankfully not often.” He professes amazement that leadership isn’t settling the Barnett case as part of an initiative symbolizing that Boeing is shedding its recently troubled past to find a new direction. “They should be celebrating Barnett instead of continuing to try to ignore his example of doing the right thing,” he says. For Boies, the new management keeps using the right words, but contradicting its position by not admitting openly to its past mistakes. “They purport to want to close the door to the past. But every time you bring up the kind of specific abuses Barnett identified, they deny them. The old Boeing arrogance and refusal to accept criticism comes back,” declares Boies.
Says Turkewitz, “John’s death has been devastating for his family and friends. John’s mom, Vicky, and his brothers are amazing people and want to continue John’s mission to protect the flying public. We had hoped to resolve the cases at mediation, but unfortunately reached an impasse.”
Boies expects the wrongful-death case to go to trial
As for the cases, Boies recounts that the two sides have discussed a deal that would settle both actions in a single package. “But I don’t think we ever got into a narrow enough range,” he says. “It was clear they were not willing to be reasonable in terms of numbers. They want to treat this like they’re an insurance company that doesn’t want to pay out any money.” He believes that in the OSHA case, the administrative judge will award the Barnetts a settlement if the two sides don’t reach an agreement beforehand. “Boeing will mainly argue about the amount to be paid,” he says. In the wrongful-death action, he adds, the outcome will hinge on whether Boeing’s alleged harassment of Barnett on the job, which he claims brought on post-traumatic stress syndrome and anxiety and panic attacks, was legally responsible for his demise when he took his own life. “It will be the argument: ‘We didn’t pull the trigger, we didn’t push him off a ledge,'” says Boies. “But I think we know a lot about PTSD today and the effects it can have in destroying a person’s life.”
Boies believes the wrongful death case will go to trial, and Turkewitz agrees. The Charleston attorney predicts that Boeing will fight hard to prevent it from getting before a jury. “Boeing’s lawyers will argue that it’s frivolous; they’ll file motions and seek summary judgment to block it,” he says. Both Turkewitz and Boies believe that Barnett’s ultimate vindication may be from the judgment of 12 Americans assessing whether Boeing caused the death of this passionate maverick by punishing him for a crusade that, had leadership joined in, could have saved a great American institution from its steep fall from grace.
