Alpha Therapeutic Corp. v. Nippon Hoso Kyokai

Alpha Therapeutic Corporation (“Alpha”) and Clyde McAuley (collectively “Appellants”) appeal the district court’s dismissal of their diversity action against Nippon Hoso Kyokai (“NHK”), asserting claims for slander, conversion, trade libel, and invasion of privacy. NHK, a Japanese television broadcaster, broadcast two programs that allegedly contained defamatory statements about Alpha and McAuley — the “Hour Long Program,” which NHK broadcast in Japan, and the four-minute “Good Morning Japan Program” (“Morning Program”), which NHK broadcast in both Japan and the United States. Through these programs NHK stated that Appellants: knowingly shipped blood products to Japan that were contaminated with the AIDS virus, falsified documents about its investigation of a blood donor, and falsely reported information about the donor to the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”).

We have jurisdiction over this matter under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We find that NHK did not implicitly waive immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”), 28 U.S.C. § 1603 , by fading to assert immunity under the FSIA in its Answer to the Complaint. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s…