In the last decade, a veritable “who’s who” of international businesses, including Pfizer, Caterpillar, DaimlerChrysler, Texaco, UBS, Yahoo, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Bridgestone/Firestone, Chiquita, Chevron, Gap and Exxon, have been sued in federal court under the United States’ 215-year-old Alien Tort Statute, also known as the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATS or ATCA).
On Oct. 12, 2007, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed this expansive trend, holding that corporations may be held liable for aiding and abetting a third party’s human rights violations abroad under this long dormant statute. Khulumani v. Barclay Nat. Bank Ltd., Case. Nos. 05 Civ. 2141/2326, 2007 WL 2985101 (2nd Cir. 2007). Just prior to Khulumani, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon in the Eastern District of New York upheld aiding and abetting liability under the ATS for a bank providing deposit and transfer services to Hamas and a network of purported suicide bombers. Almog v. Arab Bank, 471 F. Supp. 2d 257 (E.D.N.Y. 2007).
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