Texas District Court Dismisses Alien Tort Statute Case Against Energy Company
A federal district court in Texas has dismissed claims alleging human rights violations against oil companies and individuals involved in the oil business. Like several other courts, the court in Abecassis v. Wyatt concluded that the plaintiffs failed adequately to plead that the defendants had aided and abetted human rights violations, because the allegations did not establish that the defendants intended to assist the violations.
Between 2000 and 2003, numerous suicide attacks took place during the second major Palestinian uprising in Israel, the Second Intifada. Major news sources began reporting in August 2002 that Saddam Hussein was paying $25,000 to families of suicide bombers and $10,000 to families of other Palestinians who died during the Intifada. Plaintiffs in Abecassis are individuals wounded in those attacks, or family members of victims who were killed. Defendants are a group of companies and related individuals whom plaintiffs alleged paid illegal kickbacks or surcharges to obtain oil from Iraq through the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program.
Plaintiffs sued defendants under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”), the Torture Victim Protection Act (“TVPA”) and the Antiterrorism Act (“ATA”). Their theory of liability, which was ultimately rejected by the court, was that: 1) defendants’ kickbacks to Hussein made defendants aiders and abettors of Hussein’s payments to families of suicide bombers, and 2) Hussein’s after-the-fact payments to the families of suicide bombers were a proximate cause of the victims’ deaths in the suicide attacks.
In dismissing the case, the court first noted that all plaintiffs lacked standing to sue under the ATS and TVPA because they had not shown a “causal connection” between the victims’ injuries and defendants’ alleged kickback payments. There was no allegation that the kickbacks were paid to the terrorists’ families, and in fact, the court noted that Hussein had admitted many other uses of the supposed kickbacks. Second, the court relied on international law to determine the standard for aiding and abetting an ATS violation, which requires that plaintiffs allege not only that the defendant knew of the primary violator’s wrongful act but also that the defendant shared the primary violator’s purpose to commit the wrongful acts. Plaintiffs failed on both fronts, and the ATS and TVPA claims were dismissed without leave to replead.
Although complaints invoking the ATS and TVPA to sue multinational energy companies for incidents overseas continue to be filed, claims that rely on attenuated theories of liability have faced increasing obstacles at the motion to dismiss stage. This is particularly true, as illustrated by this opinion, where liability is premised on indirect money payments.
Friday, April 23, 2010
CARLOS ISRAEL DIAZ, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al
No. 09-13855. United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
April 16, 2010.
Before DUBINA, Chief Judge, MARCUS and FAY, Circuit Judges
Excerpt:
"The ATCA is not only a jurisdictional statute, but it also "provides a cause of action for the modest number of international law violations with a potential for personal liability at the time of its enactment." Aldana v. Del Monte Fresh Produce, N.A., Inc., 416 F.3d 1242, 1246 (11th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). To state a claim for relief under the ATCA, a plaintiff must prove a prima facie case that he is "(1) an alien, (2) suing for a tort, which was (3) committed in violation of international law." Id. We have previously held that non-torture claims of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment are not cognizable under the ATCA. Id. at 1247.
Because we are bound by our prior precedent unless and until it is overturned by this Court en banc or by the U.S. Supreme Court, see United States v. Vega-Castillo, 540 F.3d 1235, 1236 (11th Cir. 2008), cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 2825 (2009), we affirm the district court's dismissal of Diaz's claims in relation to the . . . the ATCA."
No. 09-13855. United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
April 16, 2010.
Before DUBINA, Chief Judge, MARCUS and FAY, Circuit Judges
Excerpt:
"The ATCA is not only a jurisdictional statute, but it also "provides a cause of action for the modest number of international law violations with a potential for personal liability at the time of its enactment." Aldana v. Del Monte Fresh Produce, N.A., Inc., 416 F.3d 1242, 1246 (11th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). To state a claim for relief under the ATCA, a plaintiff must prove a prima facie case that he is "(1) an alien, (2) suing for a tort, which was (3) committed in violation of international law." Id. We have previously held that non-torture claims of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment are not cognizable under the ATCA. Id. at 1247.
Because we are bound by our prior precedent unless and until it is overturned by this Court en banc or by the U.S. Supreme Court, see United States v. Vega-Castillo, 540 F.3d 1235, 1236 (11th Cir. 2008), cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 2825 (2009), we affirm the district court's dismissal of Diaz's claims in relation to the . . . the ATCA."
Widespread Systematic Sexual Abuse?
Belgian bishop quits over sex abuse
[UPDATE: see NYT]
A Belgian bishop has resigned after admitting he sexually abused a young boy more than two decades ago.Roger Vangheluwe, 73, is the first bishop to have been directly implicated in a church since a string of abuse cases and subsequent cover-ups began to emerge last year.
In a statement released on Friday the Bishop of Bruges said: "When I was still a simple priest and for a while when I began as a bishop, I sexually abused a young man in my close entourage.
"This has marked the victim forever. The wound does not heal. Neither in me nor the victim, he said, adding that had asked for forgiveness and was "enormously sorry".
Pope Benedict XVI accepted Vangheluwe's resignation, under a canon law provision for "illness" or unspecified "other serious reasons", the Vatican said.
'Culture of secrecy'
A number of other bishops have resigned since scandals involving catholic priests began sweeping Europe and the Americas last November. More...
[UPDATE: see NYT]
A Belgian bishop has resigned after admitting he sexually abused a young boy more than two decades ago.Roger Vangheluwe, 73, is the first bishop to have been directly implicated in a church since a string of abuse cases and subsequent cover-ups began to emerge last year.
In a statement released on Friday the Bishop of Bruges said: "When I was still a simple priest and for a while when I began as a bishop, I sexually abused a young man in my close entourage.
"This has marked the victim forever. The wound does not heal. Neither in me nor the victim, he said, adding that had asked for forgiveness and was "enormously sorry".
Pope Benedict XVI accepted Vangheluwe's resignation, under a canon law provision for "illness" or unspecified "other serious reasons", the Vatican said.
'Culture of secrecy'
A number of other bishops have resigned since scandals involving catholic priests began sweeping Europe and the Americas last November. More...
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
It's beginning...
California: 2 Archdioceses Sued
By REBECCA CATHCART
Published: April 20, 2010
Lawyers for a Mexican man who says he was abused as a boy by his priest in Mexico filed a civil complaint Tuesday against archdioceses here and in Mexico. The complaint was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, meant to prosecute human rights abuses committed outside the United States. The complaint accuses Cardinals Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles and Norberto Rivera of Tehuacan, Mexico, of transferring the priest, the Rev. Nicolás Aguilar-Rivera, a Mexican citizen, between dioceses despite his history of sexual abuse. Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said Cardinal Mahoney was not warned of the priest’s history before the transfer. A 20-year-old warrant for the arrest of the priest on 19 counts of child rape is pending in Los Angeles. He was defrocked in 2009.
By REBECCA CATHCART
Published: April 20, 2010
Lawyers for a Mexican man who says he was abused as a boy by his priest in Mexico filed a civil complaint Tuesday against archdioceses here and in Mexico. The complaint was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, meant to prosecute human rights abuses committed outside the United States. The complaint accuses Cardinals Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles and Norberto Rivera of Tehuacan, Mexico, of transferring the priest, the Rev. Nicolás Aguilar-Rivera, a Mexican citizen, between dioceses despite his history of sexual abuse. Tod Tamberg, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said Cardinal Mahoney was not warned of the priest’s history before the transfer. A 20-year-old warrant for the arrest of the priest on 19 counts of child rape is pending in Los Angeles. He was defrocked in 2009.
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