WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday a company can't be held liable for actions occurring outside the United States during Argentina's "Dirty War."
In San Francisco, 22 residents of Argentina sued DaimlerChrysler Aktiengesellschaft (Daimler), a German public stock company that is the predecessor to Daimler AG.
Their complaint alleged that Mercedes-Benz Argentina (MB Argentina), an Argentinian subsidiary of
Daimler, collaborated with state security forces during Argentina's 1976–1983 "Dirty War" to kidnap, detain, torture and kill certain MB Argentina workers -- including those filing the suit or those closely related to them.
The Argentinians made claims under the federal Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991, as well as California and Argentina law. The suit cited Mercedes-Benz USA, a Daimler subsidiary doing business in New Jersey and incorporated in Delaware.
A federal judge dismissed the case, but a federal appeals court reversed.
Writing for the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the appeals court was itself reversed.
Ginsberg pointed to a 2011 high court ruling in which "we held that a [U.S.] court may assert jurisdiction over a foreign corporation 'to hear any and all claims against [it]' only when the corporation's affiliations with the state in which suit is brought are so constant and pervasive 'as to render [it] essentially at home in the forum state.'
"We conclude Daimler is not 'at home' in California, and cannot be sued there for injuries plaintiffs attribute to MB Argentina's conduct in Argentina."
