Leenardo

MEMORANDUM *

1. The district court did not err in finding that India, Indonesia and Malaysia are High Contracting Parties to the Warsaw Convention. 1 The United States Department of State has taken the position that these countries were High Contracting Parties on the date of the accident. See U.S. Dep’t of State, Treaties in Force 12 — 13 (2000). We defer to the Executive Branch’s interpretation of a multilateral treaty. See Mingtai Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. United Parcel Service, 177 F.3d 1142, 1145 (9th Cir.1999); Then v. Melendez, 92 F.3d 851, 854 (9th Cir.1996). Moreover, the evidence submitted by the defendants overwhelmingly supports the district court’s finding that India, Indonesia and Malaysia are High Contracting Parties.

2. Because each plaintiffs final destination country was a High Contracting Party, plaintiffs are subject to the Convention’s jurisdictional limitations. See Warsaw Convention arts. 1(2), 28(1). Under the Convention, an action for damages against Singapore Airlines may be brought only before a court having jurisdiction where Singapore Airlines is domiciled or has its principal place of business, where the contract for international carriage was made…