BYBEE, Circuit Judge:
This suit arises out of the 1998 bombing of a Colombian village by members of the Colombian Air Force (CAF). Plaintiffs,
In a prior appeal, we declined to decide the issues presented and remanded the case to the district court for two purposes: first, "to consider whether a prudential exhaustion requirement applies in this case, and if so, whether that requirement bars any claims in this case," and, second, to "consider the effect, if any," of two Colombian court opinions related to the bombing. Mujica v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 564 F.3d 1190, 1192 (9th Cir.2009) ("Mujica III"). On limited remand, the district court found that prudential exhaustion was not required. It also found that, if prudential exhaustion were required, Occidental had met its burden of pleading and proving the availability of local remedies. Mujica v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., Case No. CV-03-2860 (C.D.Cal., Mar. 8, 2010) ("Mujica IV"). Plaintiffs and Defendants appealed and cross-appealed.
We hold that Plaintiffs lack a valid claim under either the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) or the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). We affirm the district court's judgment of dismissal with respect to Plaintiffs' state-law claims, but we do so on the ground of international comity. Although the district court rejected dismissal on that ground, we conclude that the district court abused its discretion by applying the incorrect legal standard in its comity analysis, specifically by concluding erroneously that a "true conflict" between domestic and foreign law is required for the application of international comity in all circumstances. Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1155. Guided by the correct standard for the application of comity, and informed by the district court's findings of fact in Mujica IV regarding the adequacy of Colombia as an alternative forum, we conclude that the state-law claims before us are not justiciable under the doctrine of international comity.
The district court described the facts of the underlying events as follows:
Mujica II, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1168-69 (internal citations omitted)).
The 1998 Santo Domingo bombing led to two legal actions in Colombia: a criminal action brought by the Colombian government against three CAF officers who were allegedly responsible for the bombing and a civil suit brought by Plaintiffs (and several other persons) against the government of Colombia.
The Colombian Public Prosecutor's Office opened a preliminary investigation into the Santo Domingo bombing the day after it occurred, on December 14, 1998. On September 21, 2007, in In re Cesare Romero Pradilla, et al., the Twelfth Criminal Court of the Circuit of Bogota, Colombia convicted three CAF officers of manslaughter. On September 24, 2009, the same court affirmed the verdict on remand from a higher court, finding that all three defendants were guilty of manslaughter and related crimes. The court then sentenced two of them to no more than 380 months' imprisonment and one to no more than seventy-two months' imprisonment.
On September 25, 2000, Plaintiffs (and others) filed a complaint against the Republic of Colombia, the Colombian Ministry of Defense, the Colombian Army, and the CAF, in regional court in Arauca, the region in Colombia where Santo Domingo is located. Plaintiffs sought damages for wrongful death and physical and psychological injuries to Plaintiffs and their relatives. On May 20, 2004, the Arauca court entered judgment in favor of Plaintiffs and awarded damages amounting to about $700,000. On December 13, 2007, in Mario Galvis Gelves, et al. v. The Nation, a Colombian appellate court approved a settlement between Plaintiffs and the Colombian government, holding that "[t]he liability of the defendant can be found, because the incident that gave rise to the settlement has been proven." On April 27, 2009, the Director of Legal Affairs of the National Defense Ministry directed the payment of 1,393,649,934.73 Colombian pesos (roughly $737,000) to the victims through their attorney. Nothing in the record suggests that the victims did not receive that settlement payment.
While the Colombian litigation was ongoing, Plaintiffs filed a complaint in United States district court on April 23, 2003. The complaint, as amended, brought claims for extrajudicial killing; torture; crimes against humanity; cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment; and war crimes under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), 28 U.S.C. § 1350, and the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA), 28 U.S.C. § 1350 Note. Plaintiffs also filed state law claims for wrongful death, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and violations of California Business & Professional Code § 17200. See Mujica II, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1169, 1176.
In January 2004, the district court requested the views of the U.S. Department of State. Id. at 1169. In April 2004, the Department of State submitted a Statement of Interest (SOI) indicating that it did not have a position on the foreign policy implications of the action. Id. Eight months later, however, the Department of State submitted a second SOI indicating that it now opposed the litigation as adverse to U.S.-Colombian relations. The Department of State attached to the SOI two short démarches
In Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1134, the district court denied Occidental's motion to dismiss based on forum non conveniens and international comity. Id. at 1163-64. With respect to forum non conveniens, the district court concluded that, despite a May 2004 civil verdict against the Republic of Colombia in favor of these plaintiffs in Colombian regional court, Colombia was an inadequate forum for Plaintiffs' claims. The court found that because the plaintiffs had received relief in Colombia, in a suit that did not include Defendants, "these Plaintiffs [would] not be able to recover against these Defendants." Id. at 1148. According to the district court, "Colombia would be an inadequate forum because
With regard to comity, which the court analyzed alongside the related doctrine of international abstention, the court held that it did not apply. It adopted Plaintiffs' argument that "at least in the Ninth Circuit, the application of international comity is generally limited to cases where there is a `true conflict' between domestic and foreign law." Id. at 1155. Under that standard, the court explained that there was no "true conflict" between United States law and Colombian law: "Since the Court has not made any findings of liability or provided any remedies, there is no present conflict between the Court's proceeding with the instant case and any proceedings in Colombia." Id. at 1156. The district court acknowledged that there was "the possibility of an inconsistency between a future, potential judgment of this Court and a judgment of a Colombian court," id., but the court refused to dismiss the suit "without the knowledge that Plaintiffs have an alternative forum in which they are able to obtain a remedy." Id. at 1163-64.
In a second opinion issued the same day, Mujica II, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1164, the district court considered whether to dismiss various claims under the TVPA, the ATS, the foreign affairs doctrine, the act of state doctrine, and the political question doctrine. Although the court worked its way through all of these statutes and doctrines and would have dismissed some but not all of Plaintiffs' claims, it ultimately concluded that the entire suit warranted dismissal under the political question doctrine. Id. at 1195; see also Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962).
The district court held that two Baker factors supported dismissal of the suit — factor four, "impossibility of a court's undertaking independent resolution [of the issue] without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government," and factor five, the "unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made." Baker, 369 U.S. at 217, 82 S.Ct. 691. In reaching that conclusion, the court "focus[ed] on the Supplemental Statement of Interest," Mujica II, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1191, and found that its assertion that U.S. foreign policy "would be negatively impacted by proceeding with the instant case" supported a finding that "proceeding with the litigation would indicate a `lack of respect' for the Executive's preferred approach of handling the Santo Domingo bombing and relations with Colombia in general." Id. at 1194. In a footnote, the court wrote that "[f]or similar reasons, the fifth Baker factor, adherence to a policy decision, would also render the instant case non-justiciable." Id. at 1194 n. 25.
Plaintiffs appealed the district court's order granting Defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion and "further appeal[ed] any and all adverse rulings on issues in the Court's second order entered on June 29, 2005, ... [and] further appeal[ed] any and all prior rulings adverse to Plaintiffs." On July 27, 2005, Occidental filed a "notice of conditional cross-appeal," appealing the district court's denial of Defendants' motion to dismiss the action on forum non conveniens and international comity grounds, as well as any adverse judgment in the court's ruling granting Defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion. AirScan filed a nearly verbatim cross-appeal the next day.
In March 2006, during the pendency of the appeal, the United States filed an amicus brief on behalf of Defendants urging affirmance "[b]ecause adjudication of this case would adversely affect the United States' foreign policy interests." And while it agreed with the ultimate disposition of the case on political question and preemption grounds, it also believed "that dismissal of the plaintiffs' claims is most appropriate as a matter of international comity."
In May 2009, we remanded the case to the district court in an order that reads, in its entirety, as follows:
Mujica III, 564 F.3d at 1190.
By the time we heard the appeal in Mujica III, the original district court judge, Judge William J. Rea, had passed away. Accordingly, on remand, the case was assigned to Judge George H. Wu, who, in accordance with our order, issued a "Ruling on Limited Remand as to the Prudential Exhaustion Issue."
In response to our first question, the district court held that "there is a sufficiently strong nexus between the claims asserted in this lawsuit and the United States that local exhaustion should not be required." The court found that, "even if the nexus [to the United States] were held to be weak, ... Occidental ha[d] not shown that the claims in this case do not implicate matters of universal concern," such as "war crimes and indiscriminate violent assaults on people at large." Thus, "Occidental ha[d] not shown that those claims against Defendants in this case [were] likely to be subject to an exhaustion requirement."
The court then addressed the second question we had posed on remand: the effect of the successful civil and criminal litigation brought in Colombia. Judge Wu came to a different conclusion from Judge Rea. Judge Wu held that remedies were available in Colombia, whether their availability was "assessed as of now or as of 2003 when the case was filed" and that, despite Judge Rea's contrary conclusion, Occidental "seem[ed] to have met its initial burden of showing the availability of local remedies." The court noted that Dr.
On April 7, 2010, Defendants AirScan and Occidental filed essentially identical "Notice[s] of Conditional Appeal," which noted that "[b]y declining to impose an exhaustion requirement on limited remand, the district court's Order on Remand leaves unchanged the prior judgment of dismissal with prejudice in this case, and thereby effectively re-enters that judgment as of the date of entry of the Order on Remand." On April 19, 2010, Plaintiffs filed a "Notice of Cross-Appeal" challenging the district court's March 8, 2010 ruling.
Dismissal for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6) is reviewed de novo. Stone v. Travelers Corp., 58 F.3d 434, 436-37 (9th Cir.1995). In reviewing a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), the court must accept as true all factual allegations in the Complaint and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Silvas v. E*Trade Mortg. Corp., 514 F.3d 1001, 1003 (9th Cir.2008).
We review the district court's decision regarding international comity for abuse of discretion. See Allstate Life Ins. Co. v. Linter Grp. Ltd., 994 F.2d 996, 999 (2d Cir.1993); Remington Rand Corp.-Del. v. Bus. Sys. Inc., 830 F.2d 1260, 1266 (3d Cir.1987). We follow a two-part test to determine whether a district court abused its discretion. See United States v. Hinkson, 585 F.3d 1247, 1261 (9th Cir.2009) (en banc). "[T]he first step of our abuse of discretion test is to determine de novo whether the trial court identified the correct legal rule to apply to the relief requested. If the trial court failed to do so, we must conclude it abused its discretion." Id. at 1261-62 (footnote omitted). If the district court identified the correct legal rule, we move on to the second step of the test and "determine whether the trial court's application of the correct legal standard was (1) `illogical,' (2) `implausible,' or (3) without `support in inferences that may be drawn from the facts in the record.'" Id. at 1262 (quoting Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, North Carolina, 470 U.S. 564, 577, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985)).
Defendants question whether Plaintiffs' April 19, 2010, notice of appeal following the district court's decision on remand was timely and, accordingly, whether we have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Defendants argue that the district court's
Defendants have misapprehended the limited nature of our original 2009 remand. In that order, we neither addressed any of the issues raised by Plaintiffs' appeal nor vacated the June 28, 2005, district court order dismissing the case. See Mujica III, 564 F.3d at 1192. Instead, we remanded the case for two specific purposes: for fact-finding on the applicability of the prudential exhaustion doctrine, see Sarei II, 550 F.3d at 822, and for consideration of the effect of the Colombian criminal and civil cases related to this litigation. Id. The district court understood our order as a limited remand. Its order is entitled "Ruling on Limited Remand as to the Prudential Exhaustion Issue." And the parties understood it to be limited as well. Defendants titled their brief "Opening Brief on Limited Remand from the Ninth Circuit," and Plaintiffs titled theirs "Plaintiffs' Response to Defendants' Opening Brief on Limited Remand from Ninth Circuit." The district court's 2010 ruling did not state it was reentering the 2005 judgment, and we did not disturb that judgment on remand. Accordingly, after the district court issued its limited ruling, the entire case returned to us. We continue to have jurisdiction under Plaintiffs' original notice of appeal, filed July 11, 2005. See Richmond v. Chater, 94 F.3d 263, 268 (7th Cir.1996) (observing that appellate courts usually retain jurisdiction when previous panel was unwilling or unable to decide the appeal and remanded the case to tie up loose ends); see also 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
We have no need to consider whether any prudential doctrines counsel dismissing Plaintiffs' federal claims under the TVPA and the ATS, as Plaintiffs have no viable claim under either statute.
The TVPA authorizes a federal cause of action against any "individual" who commits an act of torture or extrajudicial killing "under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation." 28 U.S.C. § 1350 Note. In a case decided while this appeal was pending, the Supreme Court examined the TVPA and
Defendants in this case are both corporations rather than natural persons. In light of Mohamad, therefore, Plaintiffs' TVPA claims must be dismissed. Accord, e.g., Cardona v. Chiquita Brands Int'l, Inc., 760 F.3d 1185, 1188-89 (11th Cir. 2014).
The ATS provides that "district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1350. The ATS "is a jurisdictional statute creating no new causes of action," although the First Congress adopted it on the assumption that "district courts would recognize private causes of action for certain torts in violation of the law of nations...." Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692, 724, 124 S.Ct. 2739, 159 L.Ed.2d 718 (2004).
"The question here is not whether petitioners have stated a proper claim under the ATS, but whether a claim may reach conduct occurring in the territory of a foreign sovereign."
In Kiobel, Nigerian petitioners who later became U.S. residents brought tort claims under the ATS, based on events in Nigeria, against foreign corporations that had only attenuated contacts with the United States — listings on the New York Stock Exchange and an affiliation with a public relations office in New York. See 133 S.Ct. at 1662-63 (majority opinion); id. at 1677-78 (Breyer, J., concurring). The Court found that these ATS claims were barred, holding that "the presumption against extraterritoriality applies to claims under the ATS" and that "nothing in the statute rebuts that presumption." Id. at 1669.
Although the Court did not hold that plaintiffs may never bring ATS claims based on extraterritorial conduct, it made clear that, in order to be viable, any such claims must "touch and concern the territory of the United States" and "must do so with sufficient force to displace the presumption against extraterritorial application." Id. Plaintiffs contend that their claims meet this requirement because Defendants are U.S. corporations and because Plaintiffs have alleged that "actions or decisions furthering the [purported] conspiracy" between Defendants and the CAF "took place in the United States." We disagree.
In apparent recognition of this defect in their complaint, Plaintiffs have requested leave to amend their complaint in light of Kiobel, The dissent likewise urges us to grant this relief. But although we acknowledge that Kiobel worked a significant change in the legal prerequisites for an extraterritorial ATS claim, and that such intervening changes in the law often warrant granting parties leave to amend, we do not believe that granting Plaintiffs leave to amend would serve any purpose. See, e.g., Bonin v. Calderon, 59 F.3d 815, 845 (9th Cir.1995) ("Futility of amendment can, by itself, justify the denial of ... leave to amend.").
Admittedly, Kiobel (quite purposely) did not enumerate the specific kinds of connections to the United States that could establish that ATS claims "touch and concern" this country. See Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1669 (Kennedy, J., concurring). It may well be, therefore, that a defendant's U.S. citizenship or corporate status is one factor that, in conjunction with other factors, can establish a sufficient connection between an ATS claim and the territory of the United States to satisfy Kiobel.
Our reading of Kiobel is in accord with that of other federal courts. So far as we can ascertain, since Kiobel was decided, only one court has so much as suggested that an ATS claim is always viable when the defendant is a U.S. citizen or corporation. Every remaining federal court has dismissed ATS claims whose only connection to this country was the defendant's U.S. citizenship.
Plaintiffs point to a legal opinion written by Attorney General William Bradford in
The Bradford Opinion is too slender a reed, however, to support the broad assertion of ATS jurisdiction that Plaintiffs ask of us. The Supreme Court considered the Bradford Opinion in Kiobel and found that it "defies a definitive reading" and "hardly suffices to counter the weighty concerns underlying the presumption against extraterritoriality." Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1668. The Court went on to conclude that "[n]othing about th[e] historical context" of the ATS, taken as a whole (including not only the events described in the Bradford Opinion but also other episodes contemporaneous with the passage of the ATS), "suggests that Congress ... intended federal common law under the ATS to provide a cause of action for conduct occurring in the territory of another sovereign." Id. at 1668-69. Consequently, the Bradford Opinion cannot support Plaintiffs' claim that a defendant's corporate U.S. citizenship is a sufficient connection with the United States to establish ATS jurisdiction.
We acknowledge that judges — including our dissenting colleague in this case — have eloquently argued that the United States has an obligation to provide redress for aliens injured whenever American citizens or corporations violate the law of nations. See, e.g., Cardona, 760 F.3d at 1193 (Martin, J., dissenting) ("The United States would fail to meet the expectations of the international community were we to allow U.S. citizens to travel to foreign shores and commit violations of the law of nations with impunity."). But we agree with several of our sister circuits that this policy argument is unavailing, as "the determination of foreign policy goals and the means to achieve them is not for us." Cardona, 760 F.3d at 1191 (majority opinion); see also Balintulo, 727 F.3d at 191-92. The federal courts cannot exercise jurisdiction under the ATS beyond the limits that Congress has prescribed, no matter how well-intentioned our motives for doing so.
To conclude, Plaintiffs' ATS claims against Defendants are based solely on conduct that occurred in Colombia, and the only nexus with the United States that Plaintiffs allege is the fact that both Defendants are U.S. corporations. We hold that these ATS claims do not touch and concern the territory of the United States "with sufficient force to displace the presumption against extraterritorial application," Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1669, and that they must be dismissed.
Finally, we dismiss Plaintiffs' state-law claims based on the doctrine of international
The federal common law doctrine of international comity is applicable to these state law claims notwithstanding the general rule that federal courts apply California's substantive law when sitting in diversity. Erie R.R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188 (1938). The Supreme Court has made an exception to the Erie doctrine "when there are uniquely federal interests at stake," such as "litigation that implicates the nation's foreign relations." Ungaro-Benages v. Dresdner Bank AG, 379 F.3d 1227, 1232 (11th Cir.2004). For instance, "an issue concerned with a basic choice regarding the competence and function of the Judiciary and the National Executive in ordering our relationships with other members of the international community must be treated exclusively as an aspect of federal law." Banco National de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U.S. 398, 425, 84 S.Ct. 923, 11 L.Ed.2d 804 (1964) (holding that the federal common law act of state doctrine precluded a federal court from considering a state law challenge to the Cuban government's expropriation of certain property). In a similar vein, the federal foreign affairs doctrine requires federal courts to dismiss state law claims based on their potential to interfere with U.S. foreign relations. See Am. Ins. Ass'n v. Garamendi, 539 U.S. 396, 401, 123 S.Ct. 2374, 156 L.Ed.2d 376 (2003); Zschernig, 389 U.S. at 440-41, 88 S.Ct. 664. For the same reason, we must consider the applicability of the international comity doctrine to these state law claims.
International comity "`is the recognition which one nation allows within its territory to the legislative, executive or judicial acts of another nation, having due regard both to international duty and convenience, and to the rights of its own citizens or of other persons who are under the protection of its laws.'" In re Simon, 153 F.3d 991, 998 (9th Cir.1998) (quoting Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113, 164, 16 S.Ct. 139, 40 L.Ed. 95 (1895)); see also Societe Nationale Industrielle Aerospatiale v. U.S. Dist. Court for the S. Dist. of Iowa, 482 U.S. 522, 543 n. 27, 107 S.Ct. 242, 96 L.Ed.2d 461 (1987) ("Comity refers to the spirit of cooperation in which a domestic tribunal approaches the resolution of cases touching the laws and interests of other sovereign states."); Black's Law Dictionary 324 (10th ed.2014) (defining "comity" as "[a] practice among political
Comity is not a rule expressly derived from international law, the Constitution, federal statutes, or equity, but it draws upon various doctrines and principles that, in turn, draw upon all of those sources. It thus shares certain considerations with international principles of sovereignty and territoriality; constitutional doctrines such as the political question doctrine; principles enacted into positive law such as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1330, 1602, 1611 (2006); and judicial doctrines such as forum non conveniens and prudential exhaustion.
International comity is a doctrine of prudential abstention, one that "counsels voluntary forbearance when a sovereign which has a legitimate claim to jurisdiction concludes that a second sovereign also has a legitimate claim to jurisdiction under principles of international law." United States v. Nippon Paper Indus. Co., 109 F.3d 1, 8 (1st Cir.1997). "The doctrine has never been well-defined," but comity "is clearly concerned with maintaining amicable working relationships between nations, a `shorthand for good neighbourliness, common courtesy and mutual respect between those who labour in adjoining judicial vineyards.'" JP Morgan Chase Bank v. Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., 412 F.3d 418, 423 (2d Cir.2005) (quoting British Airways Bd. v. Laker Airways Ltd., [1984] E.C.C. 36, 41 (Eng.C.A.)).
There are essentially "two distinct doctrines [which] are often conflated under the heading `international comity.'" In re S. African Apartheid Litig., 617 F.Supp.2d 228, 283 (S.D.N.Y.2009). The first is legislative or "prescriptive comity," which guides domestic courts as they decide the extraterritorial reach of federal statutes. See Kiobel, 133 S.Ct. at 1664; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A., 542 U.S. 155, 165, 124 S.Ct. 2359, 159 L.Ed.2d 226 (2004); see also Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. California, 509 U.S. 764, 817, 113 S.Ct. 2891, 125 L.Ed.2d 612 (1993) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (describing prescriptive comity as "the respect sovereign nations afford each other by limiting the reach of their laws"); In re Maxwell
The second strain of the doctrine is referred to as "comity among courts" or adjudicatory comity, which "may be viewed as a discretionary act of deference by a national court to decline to exercise jurisdiction in a case properly adjudicated in a foreign state." Maxwell, 93 F.3d at 1047; see also Hartford Fire, 509 U.S. at 817, 113 S.Ct. 2891 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (describing "comity of the courts" as a set of principles "whereby judges decline to exercise jurisdiction over matters more appropriately adjudged elsewhere").
The Supreme Court's most recent most discussion of international comity was in Hartford Fire, 509 U.S. at 798, 113 S.Ct. 2891. Hartford Fire did not explain, however, what factors we should or must consider when addressing comity; in particular, it left unclear whether a "true conflict" is a predicate to prudential abstention on the grounds of comity. The district court in the instant litigation held that, "at least in the Ninth Circuit, the application of international comity is generally limited to cases where there is a `true conflict' between domestic and foreign law." Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1155-56 (citing Hartford Fire, 509 U.S. at 794-95, 113 S.Ct. 2891, and In re Simon, 153 F.3d at 999). And Plaintiffs argue here that "[t]he existence of a `true conflict' is a threshold requirement for abstention on international comity grounds," and that "[i]n this Court, ... [the] rule is absolutely clear that application of the law of international comity is limited to cases in which there is in fact a true conflict between domestic and foreign law."
We do not think that Hartford Fire stands for the proposition adopted by the district court and urged by Plaintiffs. Hartford Fire involved the reach of U.S. antitrust laws, which applied extraterritorially; in that case, the question was whether a U.S. district court could exercise jurisdiction over antitrust claims filed against a group of London reinsurers. 509 U.S. at 769, 798-99, 113 S.Ct. 2891. The London reinsurers argued that, based on international comity, the antitrust laws should not be read to extend to their activities, which were regulated by British law. See id. at 797-98, 113 S.Ct. 2891.
The Supreme Court stated that the "only substantial question in th[e] litigation" was "whether there [wa]s in fact a true conflict between domestic and foreign law." Id. at 798, 113 S.Ct. 2891 (internal quotation marks omitted). The defendants argued that applying federal antitrust laws
In light of the lack of conflict, the Court held that there was "no need ... to address other considerations that might inform a decision to refrain from the exercise of jurisdiction on grounds of international comity." Id. Justice Scalia dissented from that part of the opinion and pointed out that "prescriptive comity" or "the practice of using international law to limit the extraterritorial reach of statutes" was "firmly established." Id. at 817-18 (Scalia, J., dissenting).
Since the majority did not address the "other considerations" bearing on comity, the Court's Hartford Fire analysis "left unclear whether it was saying that the only relevant comity factor in that case was conflict with foreign law ... or whether the Court was more broadly rejecting balancing of comity interests in any case where there is no true conflict." Harold Hongju Koh, Transnational Litigation in United States Courts 80 (2008). We think that Hartford Fire does not require proof of a "true conflict" as a prerequisite for invoking the doctrine of comity, at least in a case involving adjudicatory comity. See id. (concluding that since such a reading of the case "would be a much more dramatic result for the Court to have reached sub silentio, I am inclined to doubt that it meant to rule so broadly").
Since Hartford Fire, the circuits have refined the Court's "true conflict" analysis and have generally required proof of such a conflict only in cases where prescriptive comity is at issue — that is, where a party claims that it is subject to conflicting regulatory schemes, such as antitrust laws or bankruptcy rules that apply extraterritorially.
By contrast, the courts have not required proof of a true conflict — although they have considered such a conflict relevant — when considering adjudicatory comity. Instead, the courts have considered a range of factors when deciding whether to abstain from exercising jurisdiction due to
Our own decision in In re Simon — a prescriptive comity case — is consistent with this pattern. There, we considered whether a bankruptcy court could sanction a foreign creditor for pursuing collection of a foreign debt that had been discharged in bankruptcy. 153 F.3d at 994. Although the creditor (HSBC) was based in Hong Kong, it had participated in the bankruptcy proceeding in the United States. Id. We began our analysis with a discussion of the extraterritorial application of U.S. law. Id. at 995. We concluded that "Congress intended extraterritorial application of the Bankruptcy Code as it applies to property of the estate." Id. at 996.
We then turned to whether we were "require[d]" by comity to vacate the bankruptcy court's injunction. Id. at 997. We noted that "[i]nternational comity in transnational insolvency proceedings must be considered in the context of bankruptcy theory." Id. at 998. We then explained that the Bankruptcy Code "provides for a flexible approach to international insolvencies" in which there is general "deference to the country where the primary insolvency proceeding is located." Id. The "sole, plenary insolvency proceeding" involving the debtor had been in the United States. Id. at 999. Because there were no "competing bankruptcy proceedings,"
Simply put, we do not interpret In re Simon — which referenced the concept of a "true conflict" in passing and in the specialized context of a bankruptcy statute that applied extraterritorially — to require proof of "true conflict" as an irreducible minimum for abstention in all comity cases.
Our other post-Hartford Fire cases also suggest that proof of "true conflict" is not a prerequisite to comity. In those cases we took account of whether there was a conflict between American and foreign law. Even when we did not find a conflict, we did not end our inquiry but moved on to consider other factors. For example, in Metro Industries, Inc. v. Sammi Corp., 82 F.3d 839, 846-47 (9th Cir.1996), we found no conflict between American and Korean law, but considered other factors to determine the reach of the Sherman Act. We looked to seven factors we had previously set out in Timberlane Lumber Co. v. Bank of America, 549 F.2d 597, 614 (9th Cir. 1976) ("Timberlane I"), for what we called "a jurisdictional rule of reason." Id. at 613. One of the Timberlane I factors was a conflict between foreign and domestic law. We noted that Hartford Fire overruled our holding in Timberlane Lumber Co. v. Bank of Am., 749 F.2d 1378 (9th Cir.1984) ("Timberlane II"), as to what "would amount to conflict of law," but determined that Hartford Fire "did not question the propriety of the jurisdictional rule of reason or the seven comity factors set forth in Timberlane I." Metro Indus., 82 F.3d at 846 n. 5.
Similarly, in In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 40 F.3d 959, 964-65 (9th Cir.1994), we presumed that there was a difference between a grand jury witness's rights under American law and his rights under Austrian law regarding the privacy of his Austrian bank accounts. That conflict, however was not the "true conflict" described by the Court in Hartford Fire. The laws of Austria and the United States did not require the witness to commit inconsistent acts; rather, he had greater privacy rights under Austrian law than American law, but it would not violate Austrian law for him to waive those rights in response to an order from a U.S. court. Id. at 966. Thus, the witness could "comply with the laws of both." Hartford Fire, 509 U.S. at 799, 113 S.Ct. 2891 (quotation marks and citation omitted). Had we believed that proof of a "true conflict" was required, that fact would have ended our inquiry. It did not. Instead, we decided that "[i]n considering international comity, we balance the competing interests of Austria and the United States ... to determine whether the purported illegality of the order under Austrian law precludes its enforcement." In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 40 F.3d at 965.
As our decisions in In re Simon, Metro Industries, and In re Grand Jury Proceedings demonstrate, we have not read Hartford Fire as imposing a rigid new set of requirements for finding comity. At least in cases considering adjudicatory comity, we will consider whether there is a conflict between American and foreign law as one factor in, rather than a prerequisite to, the application of comity.
Accordingly, the district court erred when it required the existence of a true conflict when it analyzed the application of international comity. And, since
Having determined that a true conflict is not always required for the application of adjudicatory comity and that the district court abused its discretion in concluding otherwise, we proceed to consider the proper framework for analyzing comity.
Beyond the question of true conflict, courts have struggled to apply a consistent set of factors in their comity analyses. As one commentator has observed, because there is "no clear analytical framework for its exercise, ... courts have been left to cobble together their own approach to [international comity]." Childress III, supra, at 51. The district court in this case followed a three-part framework articulated by the Eleventh Circuit in Ungaro-Benages for the prospective application of international comity. See Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1160 (citing Ungaro-Benages, 379 F.3d at 1238).
The Ungaro-Benages framework is a useful starting point for analyzing comity claims, but the case offers no substantive standards for assessing its three factors. Ungaro-Benages tells us to consider the respective interests of the United States and the foreign country, but it does not tell us what interests count or what makes a foreign forum adequate or inadequate. See id. at 1238-39. For those considerations, we may draw on our oft-cited opinion in Timberlane I. We note that the criteria we considered in that antitrust case
The (nonexclusive) factors we should consider when assessing U.S. interests include (1) the location of the conduct in question, (2) the nationality of the parties, (3) the character of the conduct in question, (4) the foreign policy interests of the United States, and (5) any public policy interests. When some or all of a plaintiff's claims arise under state law, the state's interests, if any, should be considered as well. The doctrine of comity is particularly concerned with "sovereign interests," Childress III, supra, at 61-62, and the sovereign whose interests are relevant when a federal court is hearing state-law claims is as much the individual state — whose law the federal court must faithfully apply — as the United States.
We will discuss each of the foregoing factors in turn.
First, comity is most closely tied to the question of territoriality. We
Not surprisingly, U.S. courts have afforded far less weight, for comity purposes, to U.S. or state interests when the activity at issue occurred abroad. See Torres v. S. Peru Copper Corp., 965 F.Supp. 899, 909 (S.D.Tex.1996) (dismissing action under comity where the "activity and the alleged harm occurred entirely in Peru [and] Plaintiffs are all residents of Peru"), aff'd, 113 F.3d 540 (5th Cir.1997); Sequihua v. Texaco, Inc., 847 F.Supp. 61, 63 (S.D.Tex.1994) (declining jurisdiction under comity where challenged activity occurred entirely in Ecuador); see also Chowdhury v. Worldtel Bangl. Holding, Ltd., 746 F.3d 42, 49 (2d Cir.2014) (reversing lower court and foreclosing jurisdiction over ATS claims filed by Bangladeshi plaintiff allegedly detained and tortured by Bangladeshi authorities in Bangladesh). See generally Koh, supra, at 18-19, 51-57 (describing courts' aversion to adjudicating extraterritorially as rooted in principle of national sovereignty).
Second, we should take account of whether any of the parties are United States citizens or nationals, and also whether they are citizens of the relevant state. See Jota v. Texaco, Inc., 157 F.3d 153, 155 (2d Cir.1998) (vacating dismissal, on forum non conveniens, comity, and failure to join indispensable party grounds, of action by Ecuadorians against American oil company for injuries that allegedly resulted from action in Ecuador); Reebok Int'l, Ltd. v. Marnatech Enters., Inc., 970 F.2d 552, 556-57 (9th Cir.1992) (holding that U.S. courts have jurisdiction where some parties were U.S. corporations and U.S. persons and other non-nationals had substantial contacts with the United States). As we previously discussed in the context of the ATS, even if the presence of U.S. nationals as defendants does not establish jurisdiction in this country on its own, it can, as we have noted, contribute to a finding that there is a "nexus" between the United States and the parties and claims in a case. See supra; see also, e.g., Sarei v. Rio Tinto PLC ("Sarei III"), 650 F.Supp.2d 1004, 1016 (C.D.Cal.2009), aff'd in part, rev'd in part and remanded, 671 F.3d 736 (9th Cir.2011), cert. granted, judgment vacated sub nom. Rio Tinto PLC v. Sarei, ___ U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 1995, 185 L.Ed.2d 863 (2013) and aff'd, 722 F.3d 1109 (9th Cir.2013).
Kiobel and the lower-court decisions that have followed in its wake confirm the importance of these first two factors to courts' jurisdictional analyses in cases involving international events. While Kiobel and its progeny specifically address the interpretation of a statute — the ATS — and not the prudential international comity doctrine, the guiding principle of those cases applies equally in the context of adjudicatory comity: the weaker the nexus between the challenged conduct and U.S. territory or U.S. parties, the weaker the justification for adjudicating the matter in
The third factor we should consider bearing on U.S. interests is the nature of the conduct in question. We should ask whether the action is civil or criminal; whether it sounds in tort, contract, or property; and whether the conduct is a regulatory violation or is a violation of international norms against torture, war crimes, or slavery. See Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692, 731-33, 124 S.Ct. 2739, 159 L.Ed.2d 718 (2004); Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, 630 F.2d 876, 890 (2d Cir. 1980). These inquiries may inform our judgment of the importance of the issue to the United States or to an individual state. The closer the connection between the conduct and core prerogatives of the sovereign, the stronger that sovereign's interest. For example, in Timberlane I, which was an antitrust case, we considered "the relative significance of effects on the United States as compared with those elsewhere, the extent to which there is explicit purpose to harm or affect American commerce,... and the relative importance to the violations charged of conduct within the United States as compared with conduct abroad." Timberlane I, 549 F.2d at 614.
Fourth, we must take cognizance of the foreign policy interests of the United States. As we do when applying the political question, act of state, and foreign affairs doctrines, we must respect the Constitution's commitment of the foreign affairs authority to the political branches. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3 ("The Congress shall have Power ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations"); art. II, § 2 ("[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties ... and he... shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls); art. II, § 3 ("[The President] shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers"). See Garamendi, 539 U.S. at 413-15, 123 S.Ct. 2374; Japan Line, Ltd. v. Cnty. of Los Angeles, 441 U.S. 434, 449, 99 S.Ct. 1813, 60 L.Ed.2d 336 (1979); Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino, 376 U.S. 398, 427, 84 S.Ct. 923, 11 L.Ed.2d 804 (1964); Baker, 369 U.S. at 211, 82 S.Ct. 691.
Courts have found that U.S. interests weigh against hearing cases where doing so would be harmful to U.S. foreign policy. See Hwang Geum Joo v. Japan, 413 F.3d 45, 52 (D.C.Cir.2005) (dismissing as nonjusticiable ATS claims brought by Korean women in light of U.S. government's argument that "adjudication by a domestic court not only would undo a settled foreign policy of state-to-state negotiation with Japan, but also could disrupt Japan's delicate relations with China and Korea, thereby creating serious implications for stability in the region" (internal quotation marks omitted)); Ungaro-Benages, 379 F.3d at 1239 (abstaining in light of strong foreign policy interest in promoting settlement of Nazi-era claims through government-backed forum); O.N.E. Shipping Ltd. v. Flota Mercante Grancolombiana, S.A., 830 F.2d 449, 451 (2d Cir.1987) (affirming dismissal where district court concluded that U.S.-Colombian relations would likely suffer if U.S. litigation proceeded in light of foreign state's "strong interest" in relevant protectionist legislation and ownership interest in defendant). This deference is rooted, in part, in separation of power concerns. See Christopher v. Harbury, 536 U.S. 403, 417, 122 S.Ct. 2179, 153 L.Ed.2d 413 (2002) (dismissing claim by Guatemalan widow alleging federal officers concealed information about her husband's fate and holding that "if there is to be judicial enquiry, it will raise concerns for the separation of powers in trenching on matters committed to the other branches").
We have treated differences in legal approach cautiously, however. Even when foreign practices may differ from American ones, we will respect those differences so long as the variance does not violate strongly-held state or federal public policy. See Belize Telecom, Ltd. v. Gov't of Belize, 528 F.3d 1298, 1307 (11th Cir.2008) (holding that decision allowing Government of Belize to remove directors of telecom company did not "violate[] American public policy" where decision "merely g[ave] effect to the plain language" of corporate articles of incorporation, which were interpreted under Belizean law).
The proper analysis of foreign interests essentially mirrors the consideration of U.S. interests. Foreign states, no less than the United States, have legitimate interests in regulating conduct that occurs within their borders, involves their nationals, impacts their public and foreign policies, and implicates universal norms. See Mich. Cmty. Servs., Inc. v. NLRB, 309 F.3d 348, 356 (6th Cir.2002).
Accordingly, courts have considered the territoriality of the questioned activity, its effects, the nationality of the parties, and the interests of the foreign state when deciding whether to exercise jurisdiction. See Jota, 157 F.3d at 160 (holding that deference to foreign state's position on matters that took place within its territory is "inherent in the concept of comity"); see also Sequihua, 847 F.Supp. at 62 (declining jurisdiction in part because of Ecuador's "official[]" protest that the litigation "will do `violence' to the international legal system").
To illustrate, in Bi, the Second Circuit held that individual victims of the Bhopal gas leak disaster in India, which harmed almost exclusively Indians, did not have standing to challenge a settlement reached between India and the company responsible for the tort in light of an Indian law granting the Indian government exclusive standing to represent victims of the disaster. 984 F.2d at 586 (declining "to pass judgment on the validity of India's response to a disaster that occurred within its borders" because doing so "would disrupt our relations with that country and frustrate the efforts of the international community to develop methods to deal with problems of this magnitude in the future"); see also, e.g., Freund, 592 F.Supp.2d at 578 (declining jurisdiction where "Plaintiffs' claims [we]re inextricably connected to France").
The interests of the United States and the foreign government must be evaluated in light of the adequacy of the foreign
The Second Circuit, for example, has held that deference to the judgment of a "foreign court is appropriate so long as the foreign proceedings are procedurally fair and ... do not contravene the laws or public policy of the United States." JP Morgan Chase Bank, 412 F.3d at 424. In that case, the court deferred to the jurisdiction of the Mexican courts even though there was a six-year delay in resolving the litigation, since such a delay did not result in "manifest injustice" or violate "fundamental standards of procedural fairness." Id. at 428 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Jota, 157 F.3d at 160 ("When a court dismisses on the ground of comity, it should normally consider whether an adequate forum exists in the objecting nation and whether the defendant sought to be sued in the United States forum is subject to or has consented to the assertion of jurisdiction ... in the foreign forum."); U.S. ex rel. Saroop v. Garcia, 109 F.3d 165, 170 (3d Cir.1997) (invoking comity to defer to foreign court on validity of extradition treaty absent assertion that foreign state failed to follow regular judicial proceedings, engaged in prejudicial or fraudulent practices, or refused to extend deference to United States' judicial findings).
We are justly proud of our legal system. But we recognize that there are other legal systems that have effected, in different ways, our constitutional values of separation of powers, due process of law, and the equal protection of the law. Comity, as the "golden rule among nations," compels us to "give the respect to the laws, policies and interests of others that [we] would have others give to [our] own in the same or similar circumstances." Mich. Cmty. Servs., Inc., 309 F.3d at 356 (internal quotation marks omitted).
Accordingly, we proceed under the Ungaro-Benages framework as we have elaborated it from the case law, mindful that comity is circumstance-dependent and not susceptible to mechanical application. "Since comity varies according to the factual circumstances surrounding each claim for its recognition, the absolute boundaries of the duties it imposes are inherently uncertain." Laker Airways, 731 F.2d at 937.
At first blush, the United States's interests in this case appear to be mixed. On the one hand, as we have explained, the conduct complained of — Occidental and AirScan's alleged cooperation with the CAF in the bombing at Santo Domingo — took place entirely in Colombia. Plaintiffs have not adequately pled any factual matter suggesting that any planning or operations took place in the United States. All the Plaintiffs, moreover, are or were Colombian citizens and residents at the time of the bombings. Cf. Balintulo, 727 F.3d at 189. On the other hand, the United States has an interest in upholding international human rights norms, and Plaintiffs allege that Defendants' actions violated international norms in several respects. See Sarei III, 650 F.Supp.2d at 1020-21. Occidental and AirScan, moreover, are U.S. chartered corporations, with Occidental a citizen of California, and the United States has manifested some level of interest in the good behavior of its corporate citizens abroad, see, e.g., Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 78dd-1, although the United States does not monitor or regulate all the behavior of its citizens, natural or corporate, overseas. See Microsoft Corp., 550 U.S. at 454, 127 S.Ct. 1746; Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., 547 F.3d 167, 174 (2d Cir.2008).
The United States, however, has spoken directly on the question of its interests in this case. The district court particularly credited the State Department's Supplemental SOI and concluded it was "strong evidence that the United States, in the interest of preserving its diplomatic relationship with Colombia, prefers that the instant case be handled exclusively by the Colombian justice system." Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1161. The SOI, dated December 23, 2004, articulated several reasons why "the State Department believes that the adjudication of this case will have an adverse impact on the foreign policy interests of the United States." First, it referenced the related actions which were then ongoing in Colombia against the Colombian government and military personnel regarding the incident. It noted that the American companies that are the subject of the instant suit were not then subject to the suits in the Colombian courts, but it added that Occidental had stipulated to service and consented to jurisdiction in Colombia.
Second, the State Department wrote that it "believe[d] that foreign courts generally should resolve disputes arising in foreign countries, where such courts reasonably have jurisdiction and are capable of resolving them fairly. An important part of our foreign policy is to encourage other countries to establish responsible legal mechanisms for addressing and resolving alleged human rights abuses." It warned that the instant case could give the impression that the U.S. government "does not recognize the legitimacy of Colombian judicial institutions" and that those "perceptions could potentially have negative consequences for our bilateral relationship with the Colombian government." The State Department praised Colombia as one of the United States' "closest allies in this hemisphere," and it warned that lawsuits like this one "have the potential for deterring present and future U.S. investment in Colombia." Finally, the letter explained that "reduced U.S. investment in Colombia's oil industry" might, in turn, "detract from the vital U.S. policy goal of expanding and diversifying our sources of imported oil."
The United States reiterated these interests in its amicus brief during the initial appeal. It wrote that "the particular foreign policy interests identified by the United
The Supreme Court has said that "should the State Department choose to express its opinion on the implications of exercising jurisdiction over particular petitioners in connection with their alleged conduct, that opinion might well be entitled to deference as the considered judgment of the Executive on a particular question of foreign policy." Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U.S. 677, 702, 124 S.Ct. 2240, 159 L.Ed.2d 1 (2004); see Whiteman v. Dorotheum GmbH & Co. KG, 431 F.3d 57, 74 (2d Cir.2005) (crediting U.S. government's expression of interests when dismissing as nonjusticiable under the political question doctrine claims brought against Austria).
That guidance is particularly apt here. This is not a case in which the State Department has issued no SOI or an equivocal SOI and the United States' position might be less entitled to deference. See, e.g., Gross, 456 F.3d at 389-90 (declining to defer to U.S. government's preference where "the United States Executive has taken no position on the merits of this dispute, and has not promised dismissal or intervention."). Here, the State Department asked for the case to be dismissed, first by strong implication in the SOI, and then explicitly in its amicus brief, which urged the affirmance of the district court's judgment of dismissal. Accordingly, we "give serious weight to the Executive Branch's view of [this] case's impact on foreign policy," Sosa, 542 U.S. at 733 n. 21, 124 S.Ct. 2739, and we conclude that the United States' interest in having the case adjudicated exclusively in Colombia is strong.
California's interest in this case weighs somewhat more in favor of our adjudicating Plaintiffs' claims than does the United States' national interest. We have previously acknowledged, for example, that California has a "significant interest in providing a forum for those harmed by the actions of its corporate citizens." Carijano, 643 F.3d at 1232. But this interest is a general interest in good corporate behavior
We next consider the strength of Colombia's interest in litigating the matter. See Ungaro-Benages, 379 F.3d at 1238. As in Bi, the activity here occurred exclusively within the territory of a foreign state and involved solely foreign victims. 984 F.2d at 586. Although Defendants are U.S. corporations, the district court correctly concluded that "Colombia has a strong interest in preventing this Court's jurisdiction over the instant case." Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1162. The court came to that conclusion after considering one of the two démarches from the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that were attached to the SOI. Id. Both démarches referenced, by case number, the instant matter's district court litigation. The first démarche, dated February 25, 2004, informed the U.S. Embassy in Bogota that "the Colombian judiciary in accordance with the principle of territoriality" was investigating the Santo Domingo bombing and assessing "the responsibility of agents of the Colombian Government" who were involved in it. The second démarche, dated March 12, 2004, stated simply:' "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to add that the Government of Colombia is of the opinion that any decision in this case may affect the relations between Colombia and the US." While the second démarche did not explain why Colombia holds this position, the SOI surmised that Colombia had a strong interest in avoiding duplicative litigation that "may be seen as unwarranted and intrusive" or would show disrespect for the "legitimacy of Colombian judicial institutions." In any event, as the district court observed, the Colombian government does not have "to explain itself to a federal court." Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1162.
Although Colombia's position is not detailed, "inherent in the concept of comity is the desirability of having the courts of one nation accord deference to the official position of a foreign state, at least when the position is expressed on matters concerning actions of the foreign state taken within or with respect to its own territory." Jota, 157 F.3d at 160. Here, Colombia has done exactly that — it has taken a specific position on an incident that occurred within its territory involving its nationals. See also Freund, 592 F.Supp.2d at 578 (crediting the official position of both the United States and France that France should be the "exclusive" forum for addressing plaintiffs claims where the underlying act occurred in France).
This situation thus stands in clear contrast to other cases where a foreign state did not express an interest in having its courts serve as a forum for relevant litigation. See Abad v. Bayer Corp., 563 F.3d 663, 668 (7th Cir.2009) ("[N]either [Argentina nor the United States] appears to have any interest in having the litigation tried in its courts rather than in the courts of the other country; certainly no one in the government of either country has expressed to us a desire to have these lawsuits litigated in its courts."); Pacheco de Perez v. AT & T Co., 139 F.3d 1368, 1378 (11th Cir.1998) ("[W]e think it significant... that the Venezuelan government has taken no position on whether this lawsuit
Under the comity doctrine, we seek "to foster international cooperation and encourage reciprocal recognition of U.S. judgments in foreign courts." United States v. One Gulfstream G-V Jet Aircraft, 941 F.Supp.2d 1, 8 (D.D.C.2013) (citing Oetjen v. Cent. Leather Co., 246 U.S. 297, 304, 38 S.Ct. 309, 62 L.Ed. 726 (1918) ("To permit the validity of the acts of one sovereign state to be reexamined and perhaps condemned by the courts of another would very certainly imperil the amicable relations between governments and vex the peace of nations.")).
Accordingly, we find that Colombia's interest in serving as the exclusive forum for this litigation is strong.
Finally, we turn to the adequacy of the foreign forum. Ungaro-Benages, 379 F.3d at 1238. The district court (Judge Rea) originally reasoned that "federal courts will not review foreign judgments unless the parties challenging that judgment demonstrate that it was unfair." Mujica I, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1163 (citing Hilton, 159 U.S. at 202-03, 16 S.Ct. 139). It held that the showing of an "adequate alternative forum" was a "necessary condition to apply the doctrine of international comity." Id. It then concluded that Colombia was an inadequate forum because Colombian law would not permit a second recovery in addition to the judgment Plaintiffs won against the Colombian government in Mario Galvis Gelves, et al. v. The Nation. See id. at 1147-48.
On remand in 2010, we directed the district court (Judge Wu) to consider the prudential exhaustion issue and the effect of the Galvis Gelves and Romero Pradilla matters, a directive which necessarily required it to reevaluate the adequacy of the alternative forum. With the benefit of the subsequent Colombian decisions, Judge Wu came to a different conclusion than Judge Rea.
As an initial matter, Judge Wu applied a burden-shifting standard: once a defendant shows that a foreign forum would have jurisdiction and would provide a remedy for a meritorious claim, the party "asserting inadequacy or delay must make a powerful showing." Tuazon v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 433 F.3d 1163, 1179 (9th Cir.2006); see also Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum, Corp., 643 F.3d 1216, 1225 (9th Cir.2011) (holding Peru provided an adequate alternative forum in action brought by members of Peruvian indigenous group and California nonprofit against petroleum company for environmental contamination).
Under this standard, the district court held that "Occidental seems to have met its initial burden of showing the availability of local remedies." In particular, Occidental had consented to jurisdiction in Colombia, and Plaintiffs could have proceeded in a separate suit against Defendants in Colombia at the time of their initial Colombian litigation. The court reviewed Plaintiffs' assertion that they could not practically have brought suit in Colombia because they feared physical danger and had fled. The court noted that Occidental "at least refuted some of Plaintiffs' contentions regarding the
We credit Judge Wu's finding of adequacy as superseding the earlier, contrary finding.
Considering the significant success Plaintiffs have had in litigation against the Colombian government and the convictions Colombia secured against the individuals
Relying on the expert testimony in the record, we conclude that Plaintiffs could have originally sued Defendants in Colombia when they sued the government, but they chose not to do so. Plaintiffs pursued litigation against the Colombian government despite fears of physical danger and, even conceding Plaintiffs' legitimate fears, they "have not shown that their `physical presence in [Colombia] is required to pursue the civil action.'" Argueta v. Banco Mexicano, S.A., 87 F.3d 320, 327 (9th Cir. 1996).
Nor is there anything in the record to suggest that the Colombian courts' decisions resulted in "manifest injustice" or violated "fundamental standards of procedural fairness." JP Morgan Chase Bank, 412 F.3d at 428; see also LG Display Co. Ltd. v. Obayashi Seikou Co., Ltd., 919 F.Supp.2d 17, 30-31 (D.D.C.2013) (holding that a judgment is repugnant to U.S. policy, such that it may be denied comity, only if it tends to undermine the public interest, the public confidence in the administration of the law, or security for individual rights of personal liberty or of private property); Collins v. Oilsands Quest, Inc., 484 B.R. 593, 597 (S.D.N.Y.2012) ("[A] foreign judgment should generally be accorded comity if its proceedings are `fair and impartial.'").
In light of Plaintiffs' substantial victory against the Colombian government, they are barred by Colombian law from a secondary recovery from Defendants. But Colombia's single-recovery rule does not render the forum inadequate. See Piper Aircraft Co., 454 U.S. at 254-55, 102 S.Ct. 252 (noting that a forum can be adequate even where there is the potential for a smaller damage award); Ungaro-Benages, 379 F.3d at 1239 ("The [alternative forum] offers victims of the Nazi era adequate remedy, even if [it] cannot provide as substantial an award as American courts."); Gonzalez v. Chrysler Corp., 301 F.3d 377, 381-82 (5th Cir.2002) (invoking comity to hold that Mexican courts are not inadequate under doctrine of forum non conveniens because cap on damages effectively bars lawsuit for wrongful death of a child); see also Bi, 984 F.2d at 586 (deferring to Indian jurisdiction addressing mass tort); cf. Freund, 592 F.Supp.2d at 576 (holding alternate forum adequate even though "[n]o amount of money can possibly be fair under [these] circumstances" (alterations in original) (internal citation omitted)).
Any lack of a remedy against Defendants thus stems from Plaintiffs' failure to sue Defendants in Colombia rather than from the inadequacy of the Colombian legal system. We note, in this regard, that American jurisdictions regularly apply single-recovery rules in other circumstances without violating fundamental standards of procedural fairness. See, e.g., Duran v. Town of Cicero, Ill., 653 F.3d 632, 642 (7th Cir.2011) ("A judgment that can be read to allow a plaintiff to recover twice [from different defendants] for the same injury contains a manifest error of law."); Vesey v. United States, 626 F.2d 627, 633 (9th Cir.1980) ("The general theory of compensatory damages bars double recovery for
In sum, because of the strength of the U.S. government's interest in respecting Colombia's judicial process, the weakness of California's interest in this case, the strength of Colombia's interests in serving as an exclusive forum, and the adequacy of the Colombian courts as an alternative forum, we conclude that all of the claims before us are nonjusticiable under the doctrine of international comity. See Ungaro-Benages, 379 F.3d at 1239.
The crimes Plaintiffs allege are abominable, but the facts of this case nonetheless favor applying adjudicatory comity. Both nations have explicitly requested that our courts abstain from adjudicating a matter that was already litigated in Plaintiffs' favor in an adequate alternative forum. The United States has articulated a strong interest in respecting the judicial process of Colombia and furthering the development of the rule of law there. The Colombian courts have shown themselves willing to vindicate Plaintiffs' legitimate claims against that country's government for its military's acts, and the government has proven itself both willing and able to hold the individuals responsible for the bombing to account, as the Galvis Gelves and Romero Pradilla litigation show. Thus, our forbearance in this circumstance is "consistent with those notions of comity that lead each nation to respect the sovereign rights of other nations by limiting the reach of its laws and their enforcement." Sosa, 542 U.S. at 761, 124 S.Ct. 2739 (Breyer, J., concurring).
We affirm the district court's judgment. We do not reach any of the other issues raised on this appeal.
ZILLY, Senior District Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part:
For over 11 years, plaintiffs
Instead, plaintiffs' claims against these U.S. corporations, brought pursuant to the
The ATS provides that "[t]he district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1350. In Kiobel, the Supreme Court held that this jurisdictional statute does not apply unless the ATS claims "touch and concern" the United States "with sufficient force to displace the presumption against extraterritorial application." 133 S.Ct. at 1669. The majority misinterprets Kiobel as requiring, in addition to a defendant's U.S. citizenship, "conduct" that occurred within the United States. For both procedural and substantive reasons, the majority is wrong to impose this standard on plaintiffs in this case.
In 2005, at the time the district court ruled on defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, Kiobel had not yet begun its path to the Supreme Court. See Mujica v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 381 F.Supp.2d 1164 (C.D.Cal.2005); see also Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., 456 F.Supp.2d 457 (S.D.N.Y.2006), aff'd in part, rev'd in part, 621 F.3d 111 (2d Cir. 2010), aff'd, ___ U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 1659, 185 L.Ed.2d 671 (2013). The district court based its dismissal of plaintiffs' ATS claims on the political question doctrine,
The majority reaches its decision by improvidently extending Kiobel. Kiobel is limited to ATS claims by foreign nationals against foreign corporations concerning activities taking place on foreign soil. The Kiobel Court was "careful to leave open" for "further elaboration and explanation" a "number of significant questions," 133 S.Ct. at 1669 (Kennedy, J., concurring), including the extent to which ATS claims against entities incorporated and domiciled in the United States, like defendants in this case, are justiciable. In a separate opinion in Kiobel, four justices indicated that they would conclude jurisdiction exists under the ATS based solely on the fact that "the defendant is an American national." Id. at 1671 (Breyer, J., joined by
In concluding that a defendant's incorporation within the United States is an insufficient basis for jurisdiction under the ATS and that plaintiffs must allege some "conduct" within our borders, the majority misconstrues Kiobel's "touch and concern" test, which is focused on the connection between the ATS "claims" and the United States. See 133 S.Ct. at 1669. As recognized by the Fourth Circuit in a decision issued after we heard oral argument in this case, the Kiobel Court's use of the term "claims," rather than "alleged tortious conduct" or similar phrases, in crafting the "touch and concern" standard was purposeful, "suggesting that courts must consider all facts that give rise to ATS claims, including the parties' identities and their relationship to the causes of action." Al Shimari v. CACI Premier Tech., Inc., 758 F.3d 516, 527 (4th Cir.2014). The majority, however, essentially disregards defendants' U.S. citizenship, which is a fundamental feature of plaintiffs' ATS "claims," and which renders application of the ATS, by definition, not extraterritorial. Cf. Ahmed v. Magan, 2013 WL 4479077 (S.D.Ohio Aug. 20, 2013) (concluding that the presumption against extraterritoriality was rebutted by the defendant's status as a permanent resident of the United States). Unless an ATS claim is premised purely on vicarious liability,
The ATS was enacted by our First Congress as a means of vesting in the district courts jurisdiction to hear private causes of action for certain torts in violation of the law of nations, including piracy. See Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, 542 U.S. 692, 724-25, 124 S.Ct. 2739, 159 L.Ed.2d 718 (2004) (citing 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 68 (1769) [hereinafter "Blackstone"]). Piracy and its modern-day equivalents, including torture and genocide, are of particular concern to the sovereign bearing primary responsibility for policing the activities of the perpetrators because failure to "animadvert upon them with a becoming severity" might render the sovereign "an accomplice or abettor of [its] subject's crime, and draw[] upon [its] community the calamities of foreign war." 4 Blackstone at 68; see also Cardona v. Chiquita Brands Int'l, Inc., 760 F.3d 1185, 1193 (11th Cir.2014) (Martin, C.J., dissenting) ("The United States would fail to meet the expectations of the international community were we to allow U.S. citizens to travel to foreign shores and commit violations of the law of nations with impunity."). In focusing on the ATS "claims," and not the underlying "conduct," the Kiobel Court carefully left open the door through which foreign victims of heinous acts by U.S. nationals could hold such individuals or corporate entities accountable. The majority now unnecessarily slams the door shut.
Had plaintiffs conceded that no act related to the 1998 bombing in Santo Domingo occurred in the United States, the majority might have been justified in analyzing whether Kiobel should be extended to preclude ATS claims as to which the only "touch and concern" allegation is the fact of incorporation in the United States. Plaintiffs, however, suggested quite the opposite. They reminded us that the contract pursuant to which AirScan provided security services for Occidental in Colombia might have been executed within our borders. Cf. Al Shimari, 758 F.3d at 530-31 (holding that jurisdiction existed with regard to ATS claims arising from interrogations conducted by civilian contractors at the Abu Ghraib prison because inter alia the contract to perform interrogation services in Iraq was issued in the United States to a U.S. corporation). In addition, far from capitulating about the absence of any financial or managerial connection between the corporate facilities in our country and the events in Santo Domingo, plaintiffs have asked for leave to amend, with the decision in Kiobel as their new guide. We should follow the lead of Doe I v. Nestle USA, Inc., 766 F.3d 1013 (9th
The district court concluded that the foreign affairs doctrine precluded plaintiffs' wrongful death, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress claims. See Mujica, 381 F.Supp.2d at 1187-88. While recognizing that tort law is within the traditional competence of the states, the district court reasoned that the strong federal foreign policy interests in this case, as evidenced by the Supplemental Statement of Interest filed by the United States, outweighed the weak interests of California concerning plaintiffs' tort claims. Id.; see also Am. Ins. Ass'n v. Garamendi, 539 U.S. 396, 123 S.Ct. 2374, 156 L.Ed.2d 376 (2003). I would affirm this portion of the district court's decision. The majority, however, expressly declines to examine whether dismissal on the basis of the foreign affairs doctrine was appropriate.
Instead of addressing the ground on which the district court actually relied in reaching its decision, the majority focuses on the district court's refusal to premise the dismissal of plaintiffs' state law claims on the doctrine of international comity. Declining to decide a matter on the basis of international comity is a form of abstention,
The majority cites to a law review article that describes international comity as "one of the most important, and yet least understood, international law canons." Donald Earl Childress III, Comity as Conflict: Resituating International Comity as Conflict of Laws, 44 U.C. Davis L.Rev. 11, 13 (2010). The majority's opinion raises more questions than it answers. The article explains that international comity may take three forms: (i) legislative or prescriptive comity, involving the extraterritorial reach of domestic legislation; (ii) executive comity, which offers deference to foreign sovereignty; or (iii) adjudicative comity or the "comity of courts." Id. at 47. To invoke legislative comity as a basis for abstaining from deciding the merits of a case, a court must conclude that a "true conflict between domestic and foreign law" exists. Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. Cal., 509 U.S. 764, 798-99, 113 S.Ct. 2891, 125 L.Ed.2d 612 (1993). When a person subject to regulation by two countries can comply with the laws of both, no conflict exists. Id. at 799, 113 S.Ct. 2891.
Adjudicative comity arises in two contexts: (i) determining the preclusive effect or enforceability of a foreign ruling or judgment; or (ii) evaluating whether to stay or dismiss an action in a domestic court in favor of either a pending or future proceeding in a foreign forum. See 44 U.C. Davis L.Rev. at 47-48. The Eleventh Circuit has grouped these situations in a slightly different manner, describing "retrospective" application of adjudicative comity as either according respect to foreign judgments or deferring to parallel foreign proceedings, and "prospective" application as occurring when a domestic action is stayed or dismissed based on the respective interests of the domestic and foreign governments and the adequacy of the foreign forum in potentially resolving the dispute. See Ungaro-Benages v. Dresdner Bank A G, 379 F.3d 1227, 1238 (11th Cir.2004).
The Third Circuit has observed that, absent the "true conflict" required for legislative comity or a basis for "retrospective" application of adjudicative comity, United States courts "rarely" refrain from exercising their jurisdiction on the ground of international comity.
Along the way, the majority characterizes as an abuse of discretion the district court's observation that, "at least in the Ninth Circuit, the application of international comity is generally limited to cases were there is a `true conflict' between domestic and foreign law," and its subsequent conclusion that "it must treat the existence of a `true conflict' as a threshold requirement." Mujica v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 381 F.Supp.2d 1134, 1155 (C.D.Cal.2005) (citing In re Simon, 153 F.3d 991, 999 (9th Cir.1998)). Of course, In re Simon stands for the exact proposition stated by the district court, and contrary to the majority's suggestion, In re Simon was not merely a prescriptive comity case. Rather, consistent with principles of adjudicative comity, In re Simon considered the fact that "there is no conflicting proceeding in a foreign nation." 153 F.3d at 999. Although I agree with the majority that the "true conflict" analysis discussed in Hartford was aimed solely at legislative or prescriptive comity, I am unwilling, in light of In re Simon and the Third Circuit's reasoning in Gross, to conclude that adjudicative international comity, whether "retrospective" or "prospective," does not contain a similar threshold.
I am also troubled by the majority's application of prospective adjudicative comity. When ruling on defendants' motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens and international comity grounds, the district court concluded that Colombia was not, at that time, an adequate forum because plaintiffs would be barred from recovering against defendants because they had already received reparation from the Colombian government. 381 F.Supp.2d at 1147-48. On limited remand, the substitute district judge interpreted his task as determining whether prudential exhaustion applied to plaintiffs' ATS claims; he did not engage in such analysis with respect to plaintiffs' state law claims. The district judge concluded that exhaustion of local remedies was not required because the nexus between plaintiffs' ATS claims and the United States was sufficiently strong, primarily because defendants are U.S. corporations, and the ATS claims involved matters of "universal concern." I agree with this conclusion. See Sarei v. Rio Tinto, PLC, 550 F.3d 822, 824 (9th Cir.2008) (en banc).
The remainder of the substitute district judge's order on limited remand, in which he indicated his belief that defendants can prove the availability of local remedies for plaintiffs' claims and plaintiffs' failure to exhaust them, is merely dictum. The majority, however, credits it over the earlier contrary conclusion of the original district judge, which was necessary to his decision to deny defendants' motion on forum non conveniens and international comity grounds. To elevate, in this manner, dictum that was uttered for an entirely different purpose, concerning a wholly separate legal doctrine, contradicts virtually every principle of stare decisis and is simply not the way in which our courts should operate.
The majority needlessly announces novel standards that will thwart the ability of not only these plaintiffs, but also of every other alien who seeks to hold a U.S. corporation accountable for atrocities committed abroad. Having enjoyed the benefits of incorporation within the United States, defendants in this case should also be required to answer in a court of the United States for any role they might have played in the 1998 bombing of Santo Domingo.
Baker, 369 U.S. at 217, 82 S.Ct. 691.
The dissent also insists that "Plaintiffs are entitled to the reasonable inference" that the acts they allege occurred in Colombia "could not have occurred" without support from Defendants' "U.S. offices." We disagree. The only pleaded facts the dissent cites to support that inference are Plaintiffs' allegations that three participants in the bombing were employed by AirScan and that the bombing was planned at an Occidental site in Colombia. These highly circumstantial allegations do not support a sweeping inference that Defendants, through actions in the United States, took sufficient part in the bombing to be subject to ATS jurisdiction under Kiobel. See Balintulo v. Daimler AG, 727 F.3d 174, 192 (2d Cir.2013) (allegation that U.S. corporations' South African subsidiaries aided and abetted human rights violations in South Africa did not "tie[] the ... human rights violations to actions taken within the United States").
The dissent believes, as we do, that Plaintiffs' state-law claims must be dismissed, but it argues that it is inappropriate for us to consider the international comity doctrine here before addressing the foreign affairs doctrine, which was one of the district court's original bases for dismissing these claims (along with the political-question doctrine). We disagree. We have not raised the question of international comity sua sponte; the district court fully considered the comity doctrine and the issue has been briefed and argued by both sides. As the dissent acknowledges, we are permitted to affirm the district court's decision on any ground supported by the record, see, e.g., ASARCO, LLC v. Union Pac. R. Co., 765 F.3d 999, 1004 (9th Cir. 2014), and we consider it important to correct the district court's conclusion that the international comity doctrine is inapplicable to this sort of case. The dissent offers no persuasive reason why our choice to address that issue is improper, other than its disagreement with the merits of our comity analysis.
549 F.2d at 614.
Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law § 403(2) (1987).
