Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran

Dist. Ct. did not err in entering judgment in favor of defendants in action under section 1610(a) and (g) of Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), as well as section 210 of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), seeking to execute $71.5 million default judgment against Iran for its role in terrorist bomb attack in Jerusalem. Three of four collections of Persian antiquities that were subject of instant lawsuit and were held by University of Chicago and Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History could not be subject to any execution order since they were either no longer in U.S. or were no longer owned by Iran. As to fourth collection, section 1610(a) of FSIA could not be used to support execution order since that section permits execution only under circumstances where foreign state itself has used said property for commercial purposes in U.S., and Iran’s act of loaning collection did not qualify as commercial use of said property. Also, Ct. rejected plaintiffs’ argument that section 1610(g) represented free-standing exception to execution immunity for terrorist-related judgments, and thus plaintiff still had to satisfy immunity exception requirements set forth in section 1610(a). Ct. further found that section 201 of TRIA could not be used by plaintiffs since instant collection had not been blocked for execution by existing execution order. (Dissent filed.)