This case is part of the series of Signal International cases. It was consolidated with Achari v. Signal International and continues on that page.

On Oct. 15, 2013, two Indian guestworkers filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi for harm suffered as a result of an allegedly fraudulent and coercive employment recruitment scheme. Plaintiffs filed this suit after District Judge Jay Zainey denied class certification on Jan. 3, 2012 in a related case, David v. Signal International.

Plaintiffs claimed that they were brought into the United States to provide labor and services to defendant, Signal International, a company providing repairs to offshore oil rigs based in Pascagoula, Mississippi, with operations in the Gulf Coast region. The complaint alleged that plaintiffs paid Signal's recruiters as much as $16,000 for travel, visa, and recruitment fees, but upon arrival in the United States discovered that they would not receive the green cards promised to them. Instead, plaintiffs were forced to pay additional fees ($1,050 per month) to live in racially-segregated labor camps and were subject to squalid living conditions and threats of both legal and physical harm if they complained about the conditions or decided not to provide labor.

Represented by private counsel, plaintiffs alleged violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (18 U.S.C. § 1589 et seq.) and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (42 U.S.C. § 1981), as well as claims for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract.

In Mar. 2014, the Court (Chief U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr.) transferred this case to the Eastern District of Louisiana. On Apr. 24, 2014, Judge Susie Morgan ordered that this case be consolidated with the Achari case.

This case continues at the case page for Achari.

Anna Dimon - 05/12/2015
Soojin Cha - 10/30/2016
Ava Morgenstern - 12/02/2017


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