In the latest ruling on the ever-narrowing scope of the Alien Tort Statute, an appeals court has dismissed long-standing claims that Chiquita Brands International Inc. facilitated war crimes by paramilitary groups in Colombia.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held 2-1 on Thursday that it doesn’t have jurisdiction over consolidated lawsuits filed against Chiquita by thousands of Colombians who lost relatives in that country’s civil war. The majority concluded that the human rights abuses at issue occurred outside the U.S., putting the claims beyond the court’s reach under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum.
