Flor Saldana v. Occidental Petroleum Corp

Family members of three union leaders killed in Colombia in August 2004 by members of the Colombian National Army’s (“CNA”) 18th Brigade brought this lawsuit in 2011 in Los Angeles, California, against Occidental Petroleum Corporation (“Occidental”), a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Los Angeles. Plaintiffs’ complaint contains ten causes of action, three under 28 U.S.C. § 1350 , known as the Alien Tort Statute, and the rest under California tort law. As correctly summarized by the district court, Plaintiffs contend that “Occidental should be liable for the 18th Brigade’s alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and assorted torts arising out of the 18th Brigade’s murder of the three union leaders.” Plaintiffs’ theory is that Occidental provided funding to the 18th Brigade, which gave Occidental operational control over the 18th Brigade, knowing full well that the 18th Brigade was committing murders and other human rights abuses. The district court dismissed the complaint pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) on the ground that it raised nonjusticiable political questions. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I

A

This case has its…

concurring:

I agree with my colleagues’ resolution of this case and our per curiam opinion. I write separately only to augment the background material that demonstrates that the Plaintiffs’ complaint raises nonjusticia-ble political questions, thus depriving us of jurisdiction to entertain it.

To illustrate the direct foreign policy interests of the United States that envelop every aspect of Plaintiffs’ case, I turn to relevant excerpts from the testimony and presentation on April 10, 2002, of Marc Grossman, our State Department’s Undersecretary for Public Affairs. He delivered this testimony to a Subcommittee of the Committee of Appropriations of the House of Representatives in connection with an appropriation of funds for fiscal year 2003, requested by President George W. Bush. In Subcommittee Chairman Kolbe’s opening statement, he set the stage for the undersecretary’s testimony:

Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations for 2003: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs of the Comm, on Appropriations, 107th Cong. 271-272 (2002).

Undersecretary Grossman then explained, in oral testimony and a…

background material that demonstrated that the complaint raised nonjusticiable political questions, thus depriving the courts of jurisdiction to entertain it.

COUNSEL

Terrence P. Collingsworth (argued), Conrad & Scherer, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Matthew T. Kline (argued) and Dimitri D. Portnoi, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Los Angeles, California; Jonathan Hacker and Anton Metlitsky, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Washington, D.C., for Defendant-Appellee. PER CURIAM:

Family members of three union leaders killed in Colombia in August 2004 by members of the Colombian National Army’s (“CNA”) 18th Brigade brought this lawsuit in 2011 in Los Angeles, California, against Occidental Petroleum Corporation (“Occidental”), a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Los Angeles. Plaintiffs’ complaint contains ten causes of action, three under 28 U.S.C. § 1350, known as the Alien Tort Statute, and the rest under California tort law. As correctly summarized by the district court, Plaintiffs contend that “Occidental should be liable for the 18th Brigade’s alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and assorted torts arising out of the 18th Brigade’s murder of the three union…