An effort to sue Ford Motor and IBM for alleged complicity in South Africa's apartheid regime was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Monday.

Judge José Cabranes, writing for a unanimous panel, said the U.S. parent companies could not be held liable for aiding and abetting their South Africa subsidiaries.

“Knowledge of or complicity in the perpetration of a crime—without evidence that a defendant purposefully facilitated the commission of that crime—is insufficient to establish a claim of aiding and abetting liability under the [Alien Tort Statute],” Cabranes said.