Defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corporation sought another trial postponement last week in suits by former St. Croix employees claiming health problems after carcinogen exposure on the job. Some of the suits were more than 18 years old. One 1967 employee suggested Monday the proposed delay was foot-dragging.
Milton Burt worked maintenance at the St. Croix alumina refining plant for 26 years with little or no protection from bauxite dust, asbestos, and other lung irritants, according to his 2021 lawsuit. In 2019, his chronic breathing trouble was diagnosed as pneumoconiosis, sometimes called black lung, usually caused by exposure to intense dust.
Similar suits against Lockheed Martin — a company recently valued at more than $20 billion with stock selling as high as $692 a share — go back to at least 2007, alleging aluminum refining companies now under Lockheed ownership were negligent in protecting their employees. Many of the original claimants died awaiting trial.
Augustin Clarke Sr. was just 65 when he died in 2023. Clarke had worked at an alumina plant owned by Martin Marietta Properties, Virgin Islands Alumina, and St. Croix Alumina on and off from 1977 to 2000, according to court records.
In his suit, Clarke claimed the companies had negligently exposed him to silica, alumina dust, and asbestos dust and fibers. He said, among other allegations, that plant owners had failed to monitor the amount of dust, provide protective clothing and apparatus, provide changing rooms so workers didn’t carry carcinogenic fibers home to their families, post warning signs, or even warn employees of the risks.
Since his death, Clarke’s family has continued to seek a trial. The case remains open, according to court records.
Plaintiff Antoine Christopher died in 2023 at 78. Alexander St. Rose was 73 when he died in 2024, the same year Rodney Emmanuel McIntosh Sr. died. Eustacius Regis died in 2019. Gorgonius Jones, Rudolph Christopher, Erwin La Bast, Julian Peters, Henry Francis, Samuel Prime, Angel Miguel Velez, and John Weekes are all former alumina plant workers who died awaiting resolution of their cases.
In the case of Milton Burt, Lockheed attorneys asked in February that the trial be moved to April 13, then asked that it be pushed back from April 27 to resolve technical legal issues like pending motions. After receiving permission to move the trial date, Lockheed’s attorney told the court on March 4 that their expert witnesses would not be available on April 27 and asked the judge to move the trial to an unspecified later date — maybe in October.
Attorneys for Burt wrote the court Monday crying foul.
“Lockheed created the very scheduling conflict of which it now complains,” Burt’s attorneys wrote to the Superior Court, according to court records. “Lockheed has now sought to delay this trial three times. Each time, it has recycled the same arguments, added new ones, and asked this court to make Mr. Burt wait. Mr. Burt — who is in his eighties and has been litigating this case since 2021 — has been patient, cooperative, and ready at every turn. He deserves his day in court.”
Burt’s lawyers offered four alternatives: Move the trial back to April 13. Or, keep the April 27 trial date and allow the expert witnesses to appear remotely, by deposition, or out of order with two day’s notice of their availability.
“Whether Lockheed knew and did not disclose that its experts would be unavailable for six months or whether Lockheed asked for a continuance without bothering to ask, the result is the same: the fault falls to Lockheed. If Lockheed had been candid with the court that either its experts would be unavailable for six months or that they had not been consulted at all, that information likely would have affected the result. And it is unfair to allow Lockheed to obtain the relief it requested and, then, use the circumstance to insist on a full six months,” Burt’s attorneys wrote.
In July 2024, attorneys for Lockheed Martin argued 17 years was not enough time to resolve legal questions about the complaint, and a trial was premature. Lockheed’s local attorney directed the Source to a 6,673-page document detailing the legacy of Burt’s case as well as reams of ancillary and seemingly unrelated Lockheed Martin business.
A sooner-rather-than-later court date may help Burt avoid the fate of others who died awaiting trial.
Ferdinand Treasure was working for a Jamaican bauxite plant before relocating to St. Croix in 1966, a year before Burt started working in bauxite. Like Burt, he later developed pneumoconiosis. Unlike Burt, Treasure moved to St. Croix to work for the island’s massive oil refinery. He sued Hess Corporation and associated entities in 2020 for allegedly exposing him to carcinogens but died in 2025. The suit remains open, according to court records.
Treasure wasn’t the only one to sue the refinery. Hundreds of civil suits remain open against former St. Croix refinery owners and related companies dating back to 1991, according to court records.
Even people who didn’t work with bauxite have complained or filed suit against the alumina plant that closed in January 2001. Before the company closed and long after, a mountain of red dust near the plant — a byproduct of the chemical processing of bauxite — plagued residents, blowing into their homes and infiltrating their drinking water.
A mediator assigned to help Burt and Lockheed Martin resolve their dispute outside of a courtroom filed a report Monday saying, “The parties have reached a total impasse, all issues require court action.”
It was not yet clear when that court action might take place.
