Scalin v. Societe Nationale SNCF SA

Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing plaintiffs’ lawsuit, alleging that defendant played role in assisting Nazi regime during World War II in stealing possessions of individuals being sent to death camps. Dist. Ct. based dismissal on finding that comity-based abstention applied because plaintiffs should have filed instant lawsuit with French Administrative claims system, even though plaintiffs relied on expropriation exception to Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to provide jurisdiction for instant lawsuit. However, Ct. of Appeals found that dismissal was proper in instant triple-foreign lawsuit, i.e., plaintiffs alleged that nationals of country other than U.S. were injured by foreign entity in foreign nation, since: (1) Supreme Ct. decision in Nestle USA, Inc., 141 S.Ct. 1931, found that Alien Tort Statute, 28 USC section 1350, does not provide remedy for triple-foreign event and does not apply where wrongful acts are unconnected to U.S. or its citizens; (2) plaintiffs could not base their substantive claims on expropriation exception to FSIA; and (3) plaintiff failed to identify any other basis for their substantive claims. Ct. further noted that had plaintiffs articulated legitimate basis for their substantive claims, then abstention doctrine would have been appropriate basis to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims.