Judge dismisses claims against co-workers in suit against NMS Nana Management Services, for now

A federal judge in Anchorage on Monday threw out, for now, a worker's claims against three of his former co-workers in his lawsuit against his employer, NMS Nana Management Services. His claims against the company remain.

Theodore Heintz sued the company and several co-workers in 2025, without a lawyer. His complaint alleged "a prolonged pattern of a multitude of willful violations of Federal and State laws," according to the judge's order. The laws he cited include a federal law that protects the civilian jobs of people who serve in the military, and laws on veterans' hiring by federal contractors, health privacy and workplace safety.

Three of the co-workers asked to be dropped from the case for good. The military jobs law applies only to employers, not co-workers, they argued, and the other laws don't let individuals sue at all.

Heintz later hired a lawyer, who didn't dispute those points. Instead, the lawyer asked for a chance to refocus the case on claims against the company: claims under the military jobs law, claims of retaliation and discrimination, and a claim for unpaid time and late final pay.

U.S. District Judge Aaron Christian Peterson wrote in the order that the co-workers' arguments "appear to have some merit." But because Heintz started the case on his own, the judge didn't bar him from bringing those claims again. He gave Heintz until Nov. 23 to file a revised complaint and told him to "take seriously" the co-workers' arguments.

The judge turned down a revised complaint the lawyer had attached to a court filing, because it wasn't submitted the proper way, through a motion. That version still listed the co-workers as defendants. For now, the original complaint stands.

The order doesn't describe what Heintz says happened at work.