Opinion ID: 2742884
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Underlying Procedural and Factual Background

Text: On February 13, 2003, Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Thomas Janis were flying over Colombia while performing counter-narcotics reconnaissance. Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) shot their plane down and, after the plane’s crash landing, captured the group. FARC immediately executed Janis and took the survivors hostage, holding them for over five years. After they were rescued and returned to the United States, Stansell, Gonsalves, and Howes—along with Janis’s wife, Judith G. Janis, as personal representative of his estate, and his surviving children, Christopher T. Janis, Greer C. Janis, Michael I. Janis, and Jonathan N. Janis—(collectively, Plaintiffs) filed a complaint against FARC in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida under the Antiterrorism Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2333, naming FARC and a number of associated individuals as defendants. After courtdirected service of summons by publication, FARC failed to appear, and the district court entered a default judgment in favor of Plaintiffs in the amount of $318,030,000 on June 15, 2010. Because of the difficulty inherent in the direct execution of a judgment against a terrorist organization, Plaintiffs sought to satisfy their award by seizing the assets of “agenc[ies] or instrumentalit[ies]” of FARC pursuant to Section 8 Case: 13-11339 Date Filed: 10/16/2014 Page: 9 of 67 201(a) of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, Pub. L. No. 107-297, § 201(a), 116 Stat. 2322, 2337 (TRIA), 1 which reads: Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and except as provided in subsection (b), in every case in which a person has obtained a judgment against a terrorist party on a claim based upon an act of terrorism, or for which a terrorist party is not immune under section 1605(a)(7) of title 28, United States Code, the blocked assets of that terrorist party (including the blocked assets of any agency or instrumentality of that terrorist party) shall be subject to execution or attachment in aid of execution in order to satisfy such judgment to the extent of any compensatory damages for which such terrorist party