Source: http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20090924_0000672.ENY.htm/qx
Timestamp: 2017-12-17 21:11:09
Document Index: 55820094

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2333', '§ 2332', '§ 2333', '§ 2339', '§ 2333', '§ 2339', '§ 2332', '§ 1331', '§ 2', '§ 2334', '§ 2334', '§ 2334', '§ 2333', '§ 2334']

KAREN GOLDBERG, CHANA GOLDBERG, ESTHER GOLDBERG, YITZHAK GOLDBERG, SHOSHANA GOLDBERG, ELIEZER GOLDBERG, YAAKOV MOSHE GOLDBERG AND TZVI YEHOSHUA GOLDBERG, PLAINTIFFS,
Plaintiffs Karen Goldberg and her seven children, Chana Goldberg, Esther Goldberg, Yitzhak Goldberg, Shoshana Goldberg, Eliezer Goldberg, Yaakov Moshe Goldberg, and Tzvi Yehoshua Goldberg, commenced this action against defendant bank UBS AG on January 28, 2008. Plaintiffs bring claims under the civil remedy provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act ("ATA"), 18 U.S.C. § 2333(a)*fn1 alleging that UBS is liable for: (1) aiding and abetting the murder or attempted murder of a United States citizen or causing the commission or attempted commission of physical violence upon United States Citizens in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2332(a)-(c)*fn2 and 18 U.S.C. § 2333(a); (2) committing acts of international terrorism in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B(a)(1)*fn3 and 18 U.S.C. § 2333(a); and (3) collecting and transmitting funds on behalf of a terrorist organization in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339C*fn4 and 18 U.S.C. § 2332(a). Presently before this court is defendant's motion to dismiss on grounds of (1) lack of standing; (2) forum non conveniens; (3) unconstitutionality of the ATA*fn5 as applied to UBS's conduct; and (4) failure to satisfy the pleading standards of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8. For the reasons set forth below, defendant UBS AG's motion is granted to dismiss the first count of plaintiffs' Complaint, and denied in all other respects.
The following facts are drawn from plaintiffs' Complaint and the affirmations, affidavits and exhibits submitted in connection with the present motion. These facts alleged in the Complaint are taken as true for purposes of the motion to dismiss, except as noted.
Plaintiffs are the widow and children of Stuart Scott Goldberg, a Canadian citizen and Israeli resident killed in a January 29, 2004 terrorist attack on a Jerusalem bus.*fn6 Complaint ("Compl.") ¶¶ 5,7. Plaintiffs are each dual citizens of the United States and Israel and currently reside in the State of Israel. Compl. ¶¶ 7-9.
Defendant USB AG*fn7 ("UBS") is an international financial institution headquartered in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland, with offices in, among other locations, Israel and the United States.*fn8 Compl. ¶¶ 12-14. UBS's U.S. corporate headquarters is currently located in New York City. Compl. ¶ 13.
B. Hamas and its Financing
Plaintiffs' claims all arise out of a terrorist bus bombing that occurred in Israel in January of 2004 and killed their father or spouse. Through this litigation, they seek to impose liability on the defendant for its alleged role in facilitating the transfer of funds to a terrorist group, Hamas,*fn9 which was allegedly responsible for the bombing.
Plaintiffs allege that Hamas is a terrorist organization founded in 1987 as an offshoot of an Egyptian radical Islamic group, the Muslim Brotherhood. Compl. ¶ 21. It has, according to the complaint, openly acknowledged perpetrating attacks which have resulted in the deaths of numerous civilians in Israel and the Gaza strip. Compl. ¶¶ 6, 22, 25-27. Because of its announced agenda, Hamas was designated a terrorist organization and "unlawful organization" by the State of Israel beginning in 1989. Compl. ¶ 23. The United States has designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization ("FTO") since 1997 and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist ("SDGT") since 2001. Compl. ¶¶ 31-32. Among those said to have been killed in Hamas's terrorist attacks have been a number of United States citizens. Compl. ¶¶ 30, 33.
While the Hamas organization includes both a terrorism component and a religious/social component, (Compl. ¶ 36), the two are, according to the complaint, interrelated, and the religious and social infrastructure used in part to recruit and train terrorists, while funds raised by Hamas for purportedly charitable purposes are in fact, according to the complaint, used to finance terrorist activities. Compl. ¶¶ 36, 43.
Financing for Hamas is said to be principally procured through an extensive network of "charities" and organizations that together make up the "Union of Good," an umbrella organization established in 2000 to provide financial support for Hamas and its agents. Compl. ¶¶ 45-47. Among the members of the Union of Good is the Association de Secours Palestinien ("ASP"), an organization headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Compl. ¶¶ 58, 61. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, ASP is the primary fundraiser for Hamas in Switzerland. Compl. ¶ 65. ASP was identified as a Hamas fundraising entity by President Bush on October 22, 2003 and placed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") list as an SDGT. Compl. ¶¶ 63-64. ASP's parent organization, Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestinians, a/k/a Comité Bienfaisance pour la Solidarite avec la Palestine ("CBSP"), which is also a member of the Union of Good and shares the same chairman as ASP (Compl. ¶¶ 44, 60), has similarly been designated as a SDGT by the U.S. Government. Compl. ¶ 59. According to the Treasury Department, CBSP is the primary fundraiser for Hamas in France. Compl. ¶ 65.
Plaintiffs allege that despite the U.S. Government's designation of ASP as an SDGT on August 22, 2003, UBS continued to provide services for ASP, including transferring money from ASP's account to the account to a West Bank institution, the Tulkarem Zakat Committee. Compl. ¶¶ 69, 72-75. Three transfers are specifically alleged to have been made between October 3, 2003 and January 8, 2004, totaling approximately $25,000. Id. The recipient of the money, the Tulkarem Zakat Committee, was designated as an "unlawful organization," (but not a "terrorist organization," a separate designation) by the Israeli government prior to the date of the transfers. Compl. ¶ 80.
C. The Bus 19 Attack
On January 29, 2004, suicide bomber Ali Ju'ara (aka Ali Jaara) is alleged to have detonated a bomb on Bus No. 19 in Jerusalem, killing 11 people and wounding 50 others. Compl. ¶ 15. Among those killed was Stuart Scott Goldberg. Compl. ¶ 7. Two terrorist groups claimed responsibility for the attack: Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Compl. ¶ 16. An Israeli Military Court subsequently indicted Nufal Adawin, identified as a Hamas member, for his involvement in the attack. Compl. ¶ 17. The Israeli indictment alleged that in planning the attack Adawin collaborated with at least one other Hamas member and was assisted by another terrorist group, Tanzim-Fatah. Compl. ¶¶ 18-19.
The plaintiffs seek to hold defendant UBS liable for having provided financial services to the alleged terrorist organization, Hamas. Defendant raises several objections to the case being heard in this court, which I address first, before turning to the substance of the motion to dismiss. Jurisdiction is alleged pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331.
The threshold issue is whether plaintiffs have standing to bring this action. The standing requirement serves as a constitutional limitation on the scope of cases that may be heard by federal courts. Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 750, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3324 (1984). Taking its basis in the Constitution's Article III, § 2 provision that federal courts are empowered to decide only "cases" and "controversies," the analysis of whether a particular plaintiff has standing is composed of three essential elements:
First, the plaintiff must have suffered an "injury in fact"-an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) "actual or imminent, not 'conjectural' or 'hypothetical.'" Second, there must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of-the injury has to be "fairly ... trace[able] to the challenged action of the defendant, and not ... th[e] result [of] the independent action of some third party not before the court." Third, it must be "likely," as opposed to merely "speculative," that the injury will be "redressed by a favorable decision.
Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 2136 (1992) (citations omitted; alteration in original). In deciding questions of standing on the basis of the pleadings, the court "accepts as true all material allegations of the complaint and construes the complaint in favor of the complaining party." Kendall v. Employees Retirement Plan of Avon Prods., 561 F.3d 112, 118 (2d Cir. 2009). While the party invoking federal jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing standing, at the pleading stage general factual allegations that the injury resulted from the defendant's conduct may suffice, because "on a motion to dismiss we 'presum[e] that general allegations embrace those specific facts that are necessary to support the claim.'" Lujan, 504 U.S. 555 at 561 (citing Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, 497 U.S. 871, 889, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 3189 (1990)).
The issue here is what constitutes a causal connection sufficiently strong to render a plaintiff's injury "fairly ... trace[able] to the challenged action of the defendant." Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560, 112 S.Ct. at 2136. Specifically defendant argues that plaintiffs have failed to plead a sufficient causal connection to establish standing because the actions of several third parties (e.g. Nafal Adawin, Ali Ju'ara and various members of Hamas) "break[] the causal chain" connecting defendant's actions to plaintiffs' alleged injury. Defendant's Memorandum of Law in Support of UBS's Motion to Dismiss ("Def. Br.") at 24 (citing Greenberg v. Bush, 150 F. Supp. 2d 447, 455 (E.D.N.Y. 2001)). Defendant further contends that plaintiffs have not, and cannot, show that the Bus 19 attack "most likely would not have occurred if UBS had not processed ASP's three wire transfers." Def. Br. at 25.
I conclude that plaintiffs have pled a sufficient causal nexus to establish standing and that defendant's arguments are in this context without merit. It is well-settled that the fact that a plaintiff's injury was not caused directly by the defendant is not itself a bar to standing. See Heldman on Behalf of T.H. v. Sobol, 962 F.2d 148, 156 (2d Cir. 1992) ("A plaintiff does not lack standing simply by virtue of the indirectness of his or her injury."). Rather, in order to establish that their alleged injury is "fairly" traceable to the challenged action, plaintiffs must simply allege facts which, if true, would demonstrate a causal connection between the defendant's conduct and the alleged injury. Where intervening acts of third-parties exist, plaintiffs must at least allege the existence of each of the intermediate causal links in the chain from Defendant's action through to the ultimate harm. Sobol, 962 F.2d at 156. Here, while a number of independent third parties were involved in the attack on Bus 19, plaintiffs have alleged a coherent and plausible causal nexus linking UBS's alleged wire transfers for ASP to the bombing of Bus 19. Thus, plaintiffs plausibly allege that UBS provided material support to Hamas in maintaining an account for ASP, (Compl. ¶ 88), and in knowingly transferring money to Hamas-controlled entities (Compl. ¶ 86). They further allege that Hamas's terrorist activities are fueled by the funds that flow into the organization, (Compl. ¶ 68)(quoting testimony by U.S. Treasury Department General Counsel David Aufhauser before the Financial Services Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Sept. 24, 2003), and that Hamas was responsible for the Bus 19 bombing in which Stuart Scott Goldberg was killed. Compl. ¶¶ 6, 17-18, 20. This is sufficient to meet their burden of establishing standing at this stage in the pleadings. Kendall, 561 F.3d at 118. See also United States v. SCRAP, 412 U.S. 669, 689, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 2417 (1973) ("If, as the [defendants] now assert, these allegations were in fact untrue, then the appellants should have moved for summary judgment on the standing issue").
United States v. SCRAP is illustrative of the relatively low burden a plaintiff must meet at the pleading stage in order to establish causation for standing purposes. In SCRAP, an environmental group was held to have standing to challenge the Interstate Commerce Commission's failure to suspend a 2.5% freight rate surcharge proposed by a number of railroad companies. Plaintiff's claimed causal connection was that:
a general rate increase would [] cause increased use of nonrecyclable commodities as compared to recyclable goods, thus resulting in the need to use more natural resources to produce such goods, some of which resources might be taken from the Washington area, and resulting in more refuse that might be discarded in national parks in the Washington area. SCRAP, 412 U.S. at 688, 93 S.Ct. at 2416. While the court concluded the causal connection was attenuated, plaintiffs were nonetheless found to have standing because they had laid out the series of links which, if true, would causally connect the challenged action to the ultimate harm. Id. The alleged causal nexus here is more direct.
Defendant further contends that plaintiffs lack standing since they did not allege, and can not prove, that the Bus 19 attack "most likely would not have occurred if UBS had not processed ASP's three wire transfers." Def. Br. at 24. However, the law does not impose such a requirement. Were defendant's "but-for" causation requirement in fact the applicable standard for establishing standing, federal courts would lack jurisdiction over any case or controversy where several acts each independently would have sufficed to cause the harm.*fn10 Under such a standard, plaintiffs' pleading burden in establishing standing would often exceed its burden on the merits, since butfor causation is not required for plaintiffs to ultimately succeed at trial. See, e.g., Linde v. Arab Bank PLC, 384 F. Supp. 2d. 571, 584-85 (E.D.N.Y. 2005) (holding that in order to prevail on the merits "there is no requirement of a finding that the suicide bomber would not, or could not, have acted but for the assistance of Arab Bank."). Defendant has cited no case support for the proposition that in order to establish standing, a plaintiff must allege that a particular harm "most likely would not have occurred" but for the defendant's actions. Rather, courts in this district have held that a plaintiff must allege facts "from which it could be reasonably inferred that, absent Defendants' unlawful acts, there is a substantial probability" that plaintiffs wouldn't have suffered harm. Greenberg v. Bush, 150 F. Supp. 2d 447, 455 (E.D.N.Y. 2001). What plaintiffs must allege are facts from which it may be inferred that cessation of the defendant's allegedly illegal activity would "make an appreciable difference" in bringing about the harm which is the subject of the complaint. Allen, 468 U.S. 737, 758, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3328. Here plaintiffs have alleged facts which, if true, demonstrate that UBS's client ASP is "a pivotal part of Hamas's fundraising structure and a significant source of Hamas's financing," Compl. ¶ 84, and that terrorist activity, including the act that killed Stuart Scott Goldberg, depends on financing of a type similar to the three monetary transfers from ASP to the Tulkarem Zakat Committee allegedly effected by UBS. Compl. ¶ 43. Plaintiffs have accordingly met their burden of establishing a causal nexus between the defendant's conduct and the harm complained of for the purposes of standing.
I now turn to the question of whether this action should dismissed on forum non conveniens grounds. The doctrine of forum non conveniens ("FNC") grants a court discretion, "to resist imposition upon its jurisdiction," even though jurisdiction may be lawfully exercised and venue is technically proper, where the convenience of the parties and interests of justice favor trial in another forum. Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U.S. 501, 507, 67 S.Ct. 839 (1947). In considering the Defendant's forum non conveniens argument, I have relied on the plaintiffs' Complaint, and on the affirmations, affidavits and exhibits submitted in connection with the present motion, but have not presumed all facts pleaded to be true. See Alcoa S.S. Co. v. M/V Nordic Regent, 654 F.2d 147, 158-59 (2d Cir. 1980) (en banc) ("[I]t is the well established practice . . . to decide [forum non conveniens] motions on affidavits"), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 890 (1980); see also Construtora Norbeto Oderbrecht S.A. v. Gen. Elec. Co., No. 07-cv-8014 (CM), 2007 WL 3025699, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 12, 2007) ("On a motion to dismiss pursuant to forum non conveniens, a court considers not only the allegations of the pleadings but all evidence before it, and does not presume the facts pleaded to be true.")
1. Traditional FNC Analysis v. 18 U.S.C. § 2334(d)
The parties agree that forum non conveniens analysis is governed by the ATA, which includes explicit provisions concerning that subject in 18 U.S.C. § 2334(d). However, the parties disagree regarding the extent to which the language of 18 U.S.C. § 2334(d) dictates an analysis stricter than that typically used.
In the usual case, the Second Circuit employs a three-part FNC analysis. First, the court must determine the degree of deference properly accorded to plaintiff's choice of forum. Iragorri v. United Tech. Corp., 274 F.3d 65, 72 (2d Cir. 2001). Second, the court must determine whether an alternative and adequate forum exists. Id. at 73. Lastly, the court must balance the private and public interests implicated in the choice of forum. Id. at 73-74. To prevail on a motion to dismiss based on forum non conveniens, a defendant must typically demonstrate that an adequate alternative forum exists and that, considering the relevant private and public interest factors set forth in Gilbert, the balance of convenience tilts strongly in favor of trial in the foreign forum. R. Maganlal & Co. v. M.G. Chemical Co., 942 F.2d 164, 167 (2d Cir. 1991).
In cases brought under 18 U.S.C. § 2333, the ATA prescribes a different standard. That provision, codified as 18 U.S.C. § 2334(d), provides that:
The district court shall not dismiss any action brought under section 2333 of this title on the grounds of the inconvenience or inappropriateness of the forum chosen, unless--
(3) that foreign court offers a remedy which is substantially the same as the one available in the ...