Court Opinion

ID: 9484528
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:55:55.127395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:50:17.779233
License: Public Domain

ALTIMARI, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Because I believe that the Supreme Court’s affirmance of this Court’s decision in Weltover v. Republic of Argentina, 941 F.2d 145 (2d Cir.1991), aff'd, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 2160, 119 L.Ed.2d 394 (1992), coupled with the Court’s decision to vacate and remand the instant case for further consideration in light of Weltover, see Antares Aircraft, L.P. v. Federal Republic of Nigeria, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 3020, 120 L.Ed.2d 892 (1992), indicates that the Court believes that an American firm suffers a direct effect in the United States as a result of the expropriation of its property by a foreign sovereign, I must respectfully dissent.
Antares Aircraft, L.P. is an American limited partnership, whose legal status is not unlike that of a corporation.1 As we noted in Weltover, “[wjhere the plaintiff is a corporation, ‘the relevant inquiry under the direct effect clause ... is whether the corporation has suffered a “direct” financial loss.’ ” Weltover, 941 F.2d at 152 (quoting Texas Trading & Milling Corp. v. Federal Republic of Nigeria, 647 F.2d 300, 311 (2d Cir.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1148, 102 S.Ct. 1012, 71 L.Ed.2d 301 (1982)). In Weltover we found it clear that “a foreign sovereign’s improper commercial acts cause' an effect to the foreign corporate plaintiff in that plaintiffs place of incorporation or principal place of business.” Id. Such must also hold true for an American firm seeking an assertion of jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act in order to recover a plane seized by a foreign sovereign.
Obviously corporations and limited partnerships are not natural persons, and consequently can only suffer financial rather than physical injuries. As noted above, in Welt-over we concluded that these financial injuries are directly felt where a, firm was organized or where its principal place of business is located. Id. By contrast, an individual suffers a physical injury at the location where the mishap occurs. Therefore, especially given the Supreme Court’s affirmance of our analysis in Weltover, I find the majority’s reliance on personal injury cases to be unpersuasive. See, e.g., Martin v. Republic of South Africa, 836 F.2d 91 (2d Cir.1987) (finding no direct effect where an American plaintiff was injured while in South Africa). Likewise, because here the American partnership was the actual'owner of the'plane, the one case cited by the majority involving a financial loss by an American firm is distinguishable, as the plaintiff in that-case was the mortgagee rather than the owner of the vessel arrested. See Colonial Bank v. Compagnie Generale Maritime et Financiere, 645 F.Supp. 1457, 1464-65 (S.D.N.Y.1986) (concluding that the seizure of a vessel had a direct effect on- the owner but only an indirect effect on the mortgagee). Accordingly, upon further reflection in light of the Supreme Court’s affirmance of our decision in Weltover and its subsequent remand of the instant case in light of Weltover, I conclude that the American partnership suffered a direct effect in the United States within the meaning of § 1605(a)(2) of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

. Although I acknowledge that notwithstanding this fact, limited partnerships are treated differently than corporations in the "technical, precedent-bound” area of diversity jurisdiction. See Carden v. Arkoma Associates, 494 U.S. 185, 195—96, 110 S.Ct. 1015, 1021, 108 L.Ed.2d 157 (1990) (holding that for purposes of determining diversity jurisdiction the citizenship of all the members of the limited partnership must be taken into account). While I do not believe that this difference in treatment is relevant, one could argue a fortiori that there was a pronounced effect in this country, because a limited partnership's loss would be felt in every state where a limited partner was a citizen.