Former security guards and others at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site have withdrawn their federal lawsuit against current and former DOE contractors at the site, ending for now the plaintiffs’ complaint about serious misconduct such as “racketeering” at the former uranium enrichment plant.
Plaintiffs filed a two-page notice of voluntary dismissal with the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio on Nov. 11 and an electronic notice posted online Tuesday said the lawsuit has been dismissed. The motion filed for the plaintiffs by Columbus, Ohio attorney Nathan Hunter said his clients sought voluntary dismissal of the claims “without prejudice,” a phrase used when litigants want to preserve the right to potentially refile their case at a later time.
The withdrawal motion came four months after a July order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Deavers putting the litigation on hold to give plaintiffs time to replace their trial lawyers.
In September 2020, a group of 20 plaintiffs, including longtime security guards Jeffery Walburn and Charles Lawson, filed suit against various uranium enrichment production and environmental contractors at Portsmouth asserting the defendant companies were part of a “pattern of corruption and flagrant disregard for human life” at the Pike County, Ohio site.
The litigation, which did not list DOE as a defendant, sought about $10 million in damages.
