Opinion ID: 4243782
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plaintiffs’ ATA Claims

Text: Plaintiffs sue for injuries sustained during three Hamas‐ associated attacks in Israel: (1) the March 2002 bombing of Café Moment, a coffee shop in downtown Jerusalem; (2) the March 2003 bombing of transit bus no. 37 in Haifa; and (3) the June 2003 machine‐gun ambush of a family driving on Route 60 near Jerusalem. Plaintiffs allege that these attacks arose in the context of the “Second Intifada,” a period of intensified violence by Palestinian terrorist groups in the aftermath of failed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in September 2000. Among those carrying out such violence were suicide bombers 7 supported by terrorist and fundamentalist groups, including the Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as Harakat al‐Muqawama al‐Islamiya, or “Hamas,” and its affiliates. For more than two decades, the United States has formally identified Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization. See 18 U.S.C. § 2339B(g)(6); 8 U.S.C. § 1189(a)(1), (d)(4); Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, 62 Fed. Reg. 52,650 (Oct. 8, 1997). The ATA affords a civil action for damages to United States nationals injured by acts of international terrorism. Specifically, it states that, [a]ny national of the United States injured in his or her person, property, or business by reason of an act of international terrorism, or his or her estate, survivors, or heirs, may sue therefor in any appropriate district court of the United States and shall recover threefold the damages he or she sustains and the cost of the suit, including attorney’s fees. 18 U.S.C. § 2333(a). The ATA defines “international terrorism” to mean, activities that‐‐ (A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; 8 (B) appear to be intended‐‐ (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum. Id. § 2331(1). Initially, the ATA afforded civil relief only against the principals perpetrating acts of international terrorism. It provided no civil action against secondary actors who, while not committing international terrorist acts themselves, facilitated such acts by others. See Rothstein v. UBS AG, 708 F.3d 82, 97 (2d Cir. 2013) (holding that ATA’s “statutory silence on the subject of secondary liability means there is none”); accord In re Terrorist Attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, 714 F.3d 118, 123–24 (2d Cir. 2013). On September 28, 2016, however, Congress enacted JASTA, which expands ATA civil liability to reach “any person who aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance [to], or who conspires with the person who committed such an act of international terrorism.” 18 U.S.C. § 2333(d)(2). JASTA expressly states that such secondary liability 9 claims are not temporally limited to terrorist acts occurring after that statute’s enactment. Rather, aiding and abetting and conspiracy claims can be asserted “as of the date on which such act of international terrorism was committed, planned, or authorized.” Id. An accompanying statutory note further states that JASTA’s amendment to the ATA applies to any civil action, “(1) pending on, or commenced after the date” of JASTA’s enactment; and “(2) arising out of an injury . . . on or after September 11, 2001.” Id. at Statutory Note (Effective and Applicability Provisions). Plaintiffs commenced their ATA actions against Arab Bank in July 2004, i.e., before JASTA’s enactment. Accordingly, so much of their claim as charged Arab Bank as an aider and abettor of Hamas acts of terrorism was dismissed. Nevertheless, plaintiffs pursued their claim on a theory that the bank’s provision of financial services to Hamas, its leaders, operatives, and affiliated charities itself constituted an act of international terrorism. In support, they relied on 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, which makes it a felony knowingly to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and recognizes the provision of financial services to such an organization as a form of material support, see id. § 2339A(b)(1), B(g)(4).5 5 Soon after these actions were filed, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network investigated Arab Bank’s New York branch for alleged failures to monitor or report suspected terror financing, resulting in a $24 million fine and the cessation of U.S.‐dollar clearing by the bank. 10