Shell decision on line

Lisa & Ian Murray seamus at accessone.com
Tue Sep 19 16:13:23 PDT 2000


definitely a great tool for future campaigns

[full case at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=997223

]

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals 00

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

August Term, 1999

(Argued: October 22, 1999 Decided: September 14, 2000 )

Docket Nos. 99-7223[L], 99-7245[XAP]

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KEN WIWA, individually and as Administrator of the Estate of his deceased father, KEN SARO-WIWA, OWENS WIWA, and BLESSING KPUINEN, individually and as Administratrix of the Estate of her husband, JOHN KPUINEN, and JANE DOE,

Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appelles,

v.

ROYAL DUTCH PETROLEUM COMPANY, and SHELL TRANSPORT AND TRADING COMPANY, P.L.C.,

Defendants-Appellees-Cross-Appellants.

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Before: OAKES, LEVAL and POOLER, Circuit Judges.

Appeal from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Wood, J.) dismissing on forum non conveniens grounds suit under the Alien Tort Claims Act against foreign corporations alleged to have participated with the Nigerian government in human rights violations committed in Nigeria. The Court of Appeals (Leval, J.) holds (1) the district court's exercise of personal jurisdiction over the defendants was appropriate, but (2) the district court erred in dismissing on forum non conveniens grounds, in failing to give proper consideration to the choice of a U.S. forum by U.S. resident plaintiffs and to the interests of the United States in providing a forum for the adjudication of claims alleging international human rights abuses.

Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part, and Remanded.

JUDITH BROWN CHOMSKY, Elkins Park, PA (Jennifer M. Green, Beth Stephens, and Richard Herz, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, NY on the brief) for Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.

RORY O. MILLSON, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, NY (Sandra C. Goldstein on the brief) for Defendants-Appellees-Cross-Appellants.

Leval, Judge:

This case concerns the application of forum non conveniens doctrine to suits under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), 28 U.S.C. § 1350, involving claimed abuses of the international law of human rights. Plaintiffs are three Nigerian émigrés, and a woman identified only as Jane Doe to protect her safety, who allege that they (or in some cases their deceased next of kin) suffered grave human rights abuses at the hands of the Nigerian authorities. Defendants Royal Dutch Petroleum Company ("Royal Dutch") and Shell Transport and Trading Co., P.L.C. ("Shell Transport") are business corporations, incorporated in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom respectively, that are alleged to have directly or indirectly participated in or directed these abuses. The district court (Wood, J.) dismissed the action for forum non conveniens after determining that England is an adequate alternative forum and that a balancing of public interest and private interest factors make the British forum preferable. Plaintiffs appeal, arguing, inter alia, that the district court erred in not affording sufficient weight to the plaintiffs' choice of forum and to the interests of the United States in providing a forum for the adjudication of claims of abuse of international human rights. Defendants contend that, regardless of the propriety of a dismissal based on forum non conveniens, the court lacked personal jurisdiction over them. We hold that the district court properly exercised jurisdiction over the defendants. As to the dismissal for forum non conveniens, we reverse.



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