A whistleblower and former Boeing inspector who died from an apparent suicide just months before his yearslong case was coming to a head could have his matter heard posthumously, a legal expert said.
John Barnett, 62, of Louisiana, was found dead Saturday in the parking lot of a Charleston, South Carolina, Holiday Inn “from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” a county coroner said.
Barnett was in town to give deposition testimony in his federal legal action against Boeing, with his case, which dates back to 2017, set to finally come before an administrative law judge this summer, according to his legal team.
Barnett’s death should not end the claim, as his estate could be substituted in as the complainant, Washington, D.C., whistleblower attorney Stephen Kohn said.
“He won’t be able to get reinstatement, but the estate should be able to get compensatory damages for the stress that he suffered and back retirement,” Kohn said.
For years, Barnett had alleged that Boeing retaliated against him for exposing potential safety issues with the 787 Dreamliner.
Under federal whistleblower protections, air industry employees like Barnett who believe they’ve been targeted for making concerns known are required to press their case through an administrative law process known as AIR21.
Boeing has denied it retaliated against Barnett, but it failed in 2022 to get the plaintiff’s case tossed.
Barnett had alleged he was the victim of a “hostile work environment and constructive discharge,” according to a May 31, 2022, ruling against the company by an administrative law judge.
Employers allegedly targeted Barnett with “downgraded performance reviews” and “removal from investigations, denial of transfers, harassment/denigration” that all might have amounted to a “constructive discharge,” the ruling said.
In the whistleblower community, the AIR21 process has well-known advantages and disadvantages, compared to a state or federal civil…
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