U.S. Appeals Court Dismisses Ruling Against Palestinian Authority, PLO Second Circuit says U.S. courts don’t have jurisdiction to hear case brought by terrorism victims By Nicole Hong
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-appeals-court-dismisses-ruling-against-palestinian-authority-plo-1472660849
A federal appeals court in New York on Wednesday threw out a multimillion-dollar judgment awarded to a group of U.S. terrorism victims, ruling that the U.S. lacked jurisdiction over a lawsuit brought by the victims against the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization.
The ruling is a significant setback for the 10 American families who sued over terrorist attacks in Israel in the early 2000s that left 33 dead and more than 400 injured. After a trial in Manhattan federal court last year, jurors found the PLO and Palestinian Authority liable for the attacks and ordered the groups to pay the families $218.5 million, which was automatically tripled to $655.5 million under a U.S. antiterrorism law.
On Wednesday, three judges for the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case, saying there wasn’t enough of a connection between the U.S. and the Israel attacks. There is no U.S. jurisdiction in this case, “no matter how horrendous the underlying attacks or morally compelling the plaintiffs’ claims,” wrote Judge John Koetl.
One test of jurisdiction was whether the Palestinian Authority and the PLO could be considered “at home” in the U.S. Despite the groups’ office and lobbying efforts in Washington, the appeals panel said that was insufficient to establish a substantial presence in the U.S. The groups are clearly “at home” in Palestine, the opinion said.
The victims who brought the lawsuit were U.S. citizens, but the judges said that during the Israel attacks, the shooters “fired indiscriminately” at large groups of people, meaning they weren’t expressly targeting Americans. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued that the attacks were aimed at the U.S. and intended to influence U.S. foreign policy.
Gassan Baloul, a Squire Patton Boggs partner representing the Palestinian groups, said in a statement: “We are very gratified that the court fully accepted our clients’ consistent position that the PA and the PLO are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States courts in these matters.”
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the Israel-based lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Congress and the State Department should intervene to “ensure that these families are compensated by the PA and PLO for these crimes.” CONTINUE AT SITE
Comments are closed.
