Opinion ID: 186241
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Related Developments

Text: 19 Just before the United States moved to intervene, appellees filed a second suit in the District Court against the Secretary of the Treasury, seeking to satisfy their newly won judgment against Iraq by attaching funds from seized Iraqi bank accounts, pursuant to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA). See Acree v. Snow, 276 F.Supp.2d 31 (D.D.C.2003). Section 201(a) of the TRIA provides that a person who has obtained a judgment against a foreign state designated as a state sponsor of terrorism may seek to attach the blocked assets of that state in satisfaction of an award of compensatory damages based on an act of terrorism. See Pub. L. No. 107-297, § 201, 116 Stat. 2322, 2337 (2002) (codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1610 note). Although appellees initially prevailed in obtaining a temporary restraining order, precluding the Secretary of the Treasury from spending down the United States' seized Iraqi assets, the District Court ultimately awarded summary judgment to the United States. See Acree v. Snow, 276 F.Supp.2d at 33. The District Court held that § 1503 of the EWSAA, as implemented by the May 7 Determination, made the TRIA inapplicable to Iraq and therefore unavailable to appellees as a mechanism for satisfying their judgment. See id. at 32-33. 20 This court affirmed the decision of the District Court by judgment. See Acree v. Snow, 78 Fed.Appx. 133 (D.C.Cir.2003). The court did not address the applicability or effect of the EWSAA and the Presidential Determination, however. Rather, the court adopted the reasoning of the Second Circuit's decision in Smith v. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 346 F.3d 264 (2d Cir.2003). In that case, the Second Circuit held that plaintiffs proceeding under the TRIA to attach seized Iraqi assets in satisfaction of a judgment were precluded from doing so because the President had previously confiscated the blocked assets and vested title in them in the United States Department of the Treasury, thereby rendering those funds insusceptible to execution or attachment. See id. at 272 (discussing Exec. Order No. 13,290 of Mar. 20, 2003, 68 Fed. Reg. 14,307 (Mar. 24, 2003)). The Second Circuit — and by extension this court — therefore did not reach the issue of whether § 1503 or the Presidential Determination made the TRIA inapplicable to Iraq and expressed no views on the scope or validity of those provisions. See id. 21 In another important development, this court issued its decision in Cicippio, 353 F.3d 1024, three months before oral argument in this case. That case presented the question whether 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(7) or the Flatow Amendment, 28 U.S.C. § 1605 note, created a cause of action against a foreign state. Several decisions in the District Court had held or assumed that these provisions did create a cause of action against foreign states. See Cicippio, 353 F.3d at 1032 (citing cases). The court of appeals had not previously affirmed any of these judgments, however, or otherwise squarely confronted the issue. See Roeder v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 333 F.3d 228, 234 n. 3 (D.C.Cir.2003) (noting that it is far from clear whether a plaintiff has a cause of action against a foreign state under the FSIA, but resolving the appeal on other grounds); Bettis v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 315 F.3d 325, 333 (D.C.Cir.2003) (raising but not resolving the question of whether the FSIA creates a cause of action against foreign states); Price v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, 294 F.3d 82, 87 (D.C.Cir.2002) (There is a question ... whether the FSIA creates a federal cause of action for torture and hostage taking against foreign states. ) (emphasis in original). 22 In Cicippio, this court definitively ruled that neither 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(7) nor the Flatow Amendment, nor the two considered in tandem, creates a private right of action against a foreign government. 353 F.3d at 1033. We held that § 1605(a)(7) merely waived the immunity of foreign states, without creating a cause of action against them, and that the Flatow Amendment provides a cause of action only against officials, employees, and agents of a foreign state, not against the foreign state itself. See id. We further held that insofar as the Flatow Amendment creates a private right of action against officials, employees, and agents of foreign states, the cause of action is limited to claims against those officials in their individual, as opposed to their official, capacities. Id. at 1034. Because of its clear relevance to the instant case, in which the only named defendants are the Republic of Iraq, the Iraqi Intelligence Service, and Saddam Hussein in his official capacity as President of Iraq, we ordered the parties here to consider the implications of our ruling in Cicippio for appellees' suit and to be prepared to discuss the issue at oral argument. See Acree v. Republic of Iraq, No. 03-5232 (D.C.Cir. Apr. 5, 2004).