Opinion ID: 782282
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusions From Jurisdiction and Definition of Immunities

Text: 22 The Act added to Title 28 a new chapter, §§ 1602-1611, in which it set out a comprehensive set of standards for federal and state courts' determinations of foreign sovereigns' claims of immunity. See FSIA § 4, 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. (90 Stat.) at 2891-97 (codified at 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602-1611); House Report at 14, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 6613. The newly added § 1604 declares that, subject to existing international agreements to which the United States was a party at the time of the FSIA's enactment, foreign states are immune from the federal and state courts' jurisdiction unless the FSIA itself provides otherwise. See § 1604. 23 Section 1605 then lists general exceptions to immunity consistent with the restrictive theory. See id. § 1605. For example, it provides that foreign states are not immune from claims arising out of their commercial activities within the United States or out of their commercial activities elsewhere that cause a direct effect in the United States. See id. § 1605(a)(2). Sections 1606 and 1607 address the scope of foreign states' exposure to liability for punitive damages and to counterclaims. See id. §§ 1606-07. III Role of the FSIA in This Appeal 24 In their complaint plaintiffs alleged federal subject matter jurisdiction under two statutes: the federal question statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1331, and the Alien Tort Claims Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, which confers on district courts original jurisdiction over any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States, id. The Supreme Court's holding in Amerada Hess instructs that, if the FSIA applies, neither of the mentioned statutes can serve as a jurisdictional predicate for this action, and district courts may entertain the case based solely on the jurisdictional provision of the FSIA, 28 U.S.C. § 1330. 488 U.S. at 443, 109 S.Ct. 683. As noted, that section gives district courts jurisdiction over claims against foreign states only when such claims fall within the FSIA's exceptions to the general grant of immunity for foreign states. 25 Here, the trial court ruled that none of those exceptions applies. Plaintiffs do not contest this ruling, agreeing that if the FSIA applies, the district court has no jurisdiction. The thrust of their argument is that the FSIA does not apply to their claims. Thus, we turn now to the first of the two issues determinative of the Act's applicability — SNCF's status as a state actor. 26 IV Railroad's Status as French Agency or Instrumentality 27 Because the Act applies to claims brought against foreign states, their political subdivisions, and their agencies and instrumentalities, see 28 U.S.C. § 1603(a), deciding whether it applies in this case presents the threshold issue of whether SNCF is an agency or instrumentality of France. The district court concluded that it is. We agree. 28 Under the Act, an entity is an agency or instrumentality of a foreign state if it meets the following three requirements: first, it must be a separate legal person, corporate or otherwise; second, it must be an organ of a foreign state or political subdivision thereof, or a majority of [its] shares or other ownership interest [must be] owned by a foreign state or political subdivision thereof; third, it must be neither a citizen of a State of the United States ... nor created under the laws of any third country. Id. § 1603(b). 29 In the case at hand, the complaint and the documents submitted by the parties clearly establish that SNCF has had the required characteristics of an agency or instrumentality of France throughout the course of this litigation. It is undisputed that SNCF is now — and was at the time the complaint was filed — a separate legal entity, wholly-owned by the French government, neither organized under the laws of any third country nor a citizen of any state of the United States. 30 The evidence in the record does not establish, however, that SNCF also had these three characteristics during World War II. For example, though the railroad's brief asserts that the French state owned 51 percent of the company between 1938 and 1982, no affidavits or documents in the record support this statement. This absence of proof regarding the railroad's status during World War II raises the question: Is the fact that the defendant entity fits the FSIA's definition of an agency or instrumentality of a foreign state at the time of the litigation sufficient to require the Act's application to the case, regardless of that entity's organization and ownership at the time of the alleged wrongdoing? 31 The issue was unresolved in our Circuit both at the time of the district court's decision in this case and at the time the parties briefed and argued the present appeal. After the oral argument, however, the Supreme Court decided Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson, ___ U.S. ___, 123 S.Ct. 1655, 155 L.Ed.2d 643 (2003), holding unequivocally that an entity's status as an instrumentality of a foreign state should be determined at the time of the filing of the complaint. Id. at 1663. Because the record clearly establishes that SNCF was an agency or instrumentality of France at the time the complaint was filed, it is an agency or instrumentality of a foreign state as defined in § 1603(b). V Retroactivity 32 We pass now to the second question that we must resolve: whether the Act may be applied to this case even though the underlying events occurred before that statute's enactment. Citing the Supreme Court's decisions in Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U.S. 244, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994), and Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States, 520 U.S. 939, 117 S.Ct. 1871, 138 L.Ed.2d 135 (1997), plaintiffs declare Congress did not unequivocally express its aim that the Act apply to pre-enactment events. In the absence of such an unequivocal statement, they continue, application of the statute to their claims would be impermissibly retroactive as it would impair their antecedent rights and settled expectations. We agree there is no unequivocal statement, but find the existing record insufficient to assess the accuracy of plaintiffs' retroactivity argument. A. Governing Legal Principles 1. Landgraf/Lindh Framework 33 In Landgraf, the Supreme Court established a two-step approach to determining whether a statute applies to events predating its enactment. First, a court must ask whether Congress has expressly prescribed the statute's proper reach. 511 U.S. at 280, 114 S.Ct. 1483. If Congress has done so, the inquiry ends. If not, the court must determine whether applying the statute to pre-enactment events would have retroactive effect, i.e., whether it would impair rights a party possessed when he acted, increase a party's liability for past conduct, or impose new duties with respect to transactions already completed. Id. If the statute's application would have such an effect, the court must decline to apply it. Id. This traditional presumption against retroactive legislation, Landgraf explained, is rooted in fundamental notions of fairness which dictate that settled expectations should not be lightly disrupted and that individuals should have an opportunity to know what the law is and to conform their conduct accordingly. Id. at 265, 114 S.Ct. 1483. 34 Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997), elaborated on Landgraf, holding that the normal rules of construction generally apply when a court determines the temporal reach of a statute. Id. at 326, 117 S.Ct. 2059. Absent a clear and express Congressional directive to apply a statute retroactively, the Court stated, applying a statute to pre-enactment events may be inappropriate for more than one reason. First, as discussed in Landgraf, such application could produce a retroactive effect, and therefore be barred by the customary presumption against retroactivity. In addition, other regular rules of statutory interpretation could remove even the possibility of retroactivity, by revealing that Congress planned solely for a prospective application. Id. For example, in Lindh, an amendment to the habeas corpus statute was held inapplicable to non-capital cases pending at the time of the amendment's enactment. The Court noted that a simultaneously enacted provision on capital cases expressly required application to then-pending cases, and reasoned that this express requirement, by negative implication, showed that the amendments pertinent to non-capital cases were meant to apply only to cases filed after the amendments' enactment. Id. at 326-37, 117 S.Ct. 2059. 35 After Lindh, therefore, a court faced with a retroactivity claim that survived the first step of the Landgraf analysis may not have to decide whether the statute produces a retroactive effect. Instead, by referring to other rules of statutory interpretation, the court may find the statute inapplicable to pre-enactment events. 2. Applicability of Landgraf to New Jurisdiction-Allocating Legislation 36 SNCF avers the Landgraf analysis does not apply to those aspects of the FSIA that govern federal courts' jurisdiction, that is, the enactment of the exclusive jurisdictional basis for claims against foreign states set out in § 1330 and the simultaneous exclusion of such claims from other general jurisdictional provisions. We disagree with the railroad's contention. 37 In Landgraf, the Supreme Court recognized that, [e]ven absent specific legislative authorization, application of new statutes passed after the events in suit is unquestionably proper in many situations. 511 U.S. at 273, 114 S.Ct. 1483. The Court noted jurisdiction-conferring and jurisdiction-ousting statutes as an example of statutes often properly applied to pre-enactment events. Application of a new jurisdictional rule, the Court instructed, usually takes away no substantive right but simply changes the tribunal that is to hear the case. Id. at 274, 114 S.Ct. 1483. Further, [p]resent law normally governs in such situations because jurisdictional statutes speak to the power of the court rather than to the rights or obligations of the parties. Id. 38 Landgraf did not suggest that all jurisdiction-defining statutes should be applied to all currently pending lawsuits, or that courts do not have to consider the effects of having such statutes cover pre-enactment events. To the contrary, the Court's use of the adverbs usually and normally suggests that it did not intend to create a categorical exception from the general retroactivity analysis for jurisdictional statutes. 39 Three years later, in Hughes Aircraft, the Court confirmed that the general presumption against retroactivity affects jurisdiction-allocating statutes to the same extent that it affects other legislation. 520 U.S. at 950-51, 117 S.Ct. 1871. At issue in Hughes Aircraft was the temporal reach of a 1986 amendment to the False Claims Act that expanded the range of circumstances in which private parties can bring suit on behalf of the United States against anyone submitting a false claim to the Government. Id. at 941, 117 S.Ct. 1871. After conducting the two-step analysis outlined in Landgraf, the Supreme Court concluded that the 1986 amendment did not apply where the defendant submitted the alleged false claims before 1986 and a private person could not have brought suit based on those claims under the pre-amendment version of the False Claims Act. Id. at 946-51, 117 S.Ct. 1871. 40 In rejecting plaintiff's argument that the 1986 amendment, as a jurisdictional statute, was exempt from the Landgraf presumption against retroactivity, the Supreme Court clarified Landgraf, stating 41 The fact that courts often apply newly enacted jurisdiction-allocating statutes to pending cases merely evidences certain limited circumstances failing to meet the conditions for our generally applicable presumption against retroactivity, not an exception to the rule itself.... As we stated in Landgraf: 42 Application of a new jurisdictional rule usually `takes away no substantive right but simply changes the tribunal that is to hear the case.' Present law normally governs in such situations because jurisdictional statutes `speak to the power of the court rather than to the rights or obligations of the parties.' 43 Statutes merely addressing which court shall have jurisdiction to entertain a particular cause of action can fairly be said merely to regulate the secondary conduct of litigation and not the underlying primary conduct of the parties. Such statutes affect only where a suit may be brought, not whether it may be brought at all. The 1986 amendment, however, does not merely allocate jurisdiction among forums. Rather, it creates jurisdiction where none previously existed; it thus speaks not just to the power of a particular court but to the substantive rights of the parties as well. Such a statute, even though phrased in jurisdictional terms, is as much subject to our presumption against retroactivity as any other. 44 Id. at 951, 117 S.Ct. 1871. 45 In light of the quoted passage from Hughes Aircraft, the railroad's argument that we should apply the jurisdiction-allocating aspects of the Act to pre-1976 events without first engaging in the Landgraf analysis is misplaced. Nor are we persuaded by the railroad's view that the quoted passage pertains only to jurisdiction-creating statutes, and thus does not apply to the jurisdiction-ousting aspects of the FSIA, that is to say, the express amendment of the diversity statute and the implied limitation on other general jurisdictional grants recognized in Amerada Hess. As discussed in Part II B. above, the enactment of the Act's jurisdiction-conferring provision for claims against foreign states in § 1330 is the very reason that other jurisdictional grants no longer govern such claims. Hence, Congress plainly aimed to have the FSIA's jurisdictional ouster applied coextensively with its jurisdictional grant. 46 More importantly, the railroad's argument misses the central point of the quoted passage from Hughes Aircraft: although jurisdictional statutes are often applied to pre-enactment events, they are not categorically exempt from the Landgraf analysis. If the particular jurisdictional statute affect[s] only where a suit may be brought, not whether it may be brought, its application to all currently pending cases usually will not have the impermissible retroactive effect discussed in Landgraf and, therefore, will fail[] to meet the conditions for our generally applicable presumption against retroactivity. Hughes Aircraft, 520 U.S. at 951; cf. Scott v. Boos, 215 F.3d 940, 944-47 (9th Cir.2000) (rejecting as impermissibly retroactive application of new statute that, although phrased as an exception to existing federal jurisdictional provision, barred plaintiff from asserting in state or federal court a claim he could have pursued at the time of the alleged misconduct); Mathews v. Kidder, Peabody & Co., Inc., 161 F.3d 156, 163-66 (3d Cir.1998) (same).