Opinion ID: 2750493
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: International Comity Doctrine

Text: 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, and a district court’s decision whether to abstain is subject to review only for an abuse of discretion. JP Morgan Chase Bank v. Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., 412 F.3d 418, 422 (2d Cir. 2005); Remington Rand Corp.-Del. v. Bus. Sys. Inc., 830 F.2d 1260, 1266 (3d Cir. 1987); see Stock W. Corp. v. Taylor, 964 F.2d 912, 918 (9th Cir. 1992). In concluding that the district court abused its discretion, the majority relies on a very suspect version of the international comity doctrine, which it substitutes for the foreign affairs doctrine as the reason to dismiss plaintiffs’ state law claims. Although a district court’s ruling may be affirmed on alternate grounds, prudence weighs against doing so when the original ground for dismissal is sound and the substitute basis involves, as here, announcing novel views regarding the underlying legal doctrine and reliance on facts unsupported by the record. 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 84 MUJICA V. AIRSCAN 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 (1993). When a person subject to regulation by two countries can comply with the laws of both, no conflict exists. Id. at 799. 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 AG, 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.11 Gross v. 11 As recognized by the district court, neither legislative comity nor retrospective adjudicative comity are relevant in this case. See Mujica v. Occidental Petroleum Corp., 381 F. Supp. 2d 1134, 1154–64 (C.D. Cal. MUJICA V. AIRSCAN 85 German Found. Indus. Initiative, 456 F.3d 363, 393 (3d Cir. 2006). Indeed, in Gross, the Third Circuit expressed skepticism about the Eleventh Circuit’s use of “prospective” adjudicative comity, which appears inconsistent with “our ‘virtually unflagging obligation’ to exercise the jurisdiction granted to us, which is not diminished simply because foreign relations might be involved.” Id. at 394 (citations omitted). I would join the Third Circuit in declining to follow the Eleventh Circuit down the “prospective” comity path. The majority, however, insists on forging ahead, despite the existence of a far less controversial basis for affirming the district court’s decision, namely the foreign affairs doctrine, and adopts the “prospective” application of the adjudicative comity rubric. 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 2005). No “true conflict” exists between the laws of the United States and the laws of Colombia concerning the bombing of civilians, no foreign judgment has been procured by or against defendants, and no foreign proceedings involving defendants were ever ongoing. 86 MUJICA V. AIRSCAN 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, MUJICA V. AIRSCAN 87 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. In addition, the majority’s conclusion that plaintiffs could have sued defendants in Colombia in September 2000, when they commenced their action against the Colombian government, is erroneously premised on defendants’ waivers of personal jurisdiction defenses, provided in connection with their August 2004 motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens. The record contains no basis for believing that defendants, who have made, throughout the 11-year span of this case, every possible argument that might justify dismissal, would have foregone such defenses had they actually been joined in the litigation in Colombia. In sum, because the dismissal of plaintiffs’ state law claims can be affirmed on the ground articulated by the district court, I see no reason to expand the scope of the international comity doctrine, particularly when the procedural posture and facts of this case do not support the result reached under the majority’s newly minted standard.