In July 2021, former St. Croix alumina refining plant employee Milton Burt sued his former employers, claiming Martin Marietta and associated companies failed to protect — or even warn — him of on-the-job exposure to dangerous lung irritants. A trial was set for July 2022. Half a decade of legal wrangling later, a jury may hear 80-year-old Burt’s case in 11 days.
Burt is far from the only or longest-waiting bauxite plaintiff. Some cases awaiting the courtroom go back to 2007.
A Virgin Islands Superior Court judge signed an order Thursday denying a bid by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corporation to yet again delay the trial. After several previous delays, attorneys for Lockheed, modern owners of the St. Croix companies Burt worked for 26 years, had argued their expert witnesses were unavailable on the date they themselves had chosen for the trial.
Judge Alphonso Andrews Jr. denied their motion and broke down the chain of events in his explanation.
The case was filed July 15, 2021, with an initial trial date of July 13, 2022, which was then pushed back to Nov. 14 of that year, and then Dec. 21. Both attorneys for Burt and Lockheed had been preparing for the late December trial until Dec. 6, when Lockheed succeeded in a motion to dismiss the case. But that was partially overturned on appeal in November 2024. Lockheed asked for another summary judgment in October 2025, which was denied. In November 2025, the court denied their appeal of the decision.
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 March 4 that their expert witnesses would not be available April 27 and asked the judge to move the two-or three-week trial to an unspecified later date — maybe in October.
Attorneys for Burt cried foul, claiming Lockheed had failed to justify the delay.
Referring to Lockheed Martin Corporation as LMC, Judge Andrews sided with Burt.
“The court acknowledges that LMC is under no obligation to divulge specifics of its witnesses’ ‘professional commitments.’ However, simply asserting that such commitments conflict with the April 27th trial, and proclaiming their unavailability is insufficient for this court to adequately assess the existence of good cause,” he wrote. “Thus, one resolution to LMC’s witness unavailability issue is to have them testify between April 27th and May 4th.”
Andrews also suggested the witnesses could appear remotely or by some other arrangement.
Attorneys for Lockheed and Burt filed their proposed jury instructions with the court Wednesday
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.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, 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.
