Dole Food Company, et al. v. Gerardo Dennis Patrickson et al. (538 U.S. 468)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 22, 2003 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 538 U.S. 468 · 123 S. Ct. 1655
- Decided
- April 22, 2003
- Term
- October Term 2002
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Petition denied or appeal dismissed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. Foreign states may invoke certain rights and immunities in litigation under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA or Act), Pub. L. 94-583, 90 Stat. 2891. Some of the Act’s provisions also may be invoked by a corporate entity that is an “instrumentality” of a foreign state as defined by the Act. Republic of Argentina v. Weltover, Inc., 504 U. S. 607, 611 (1992); Verlinden B. V. v. Central Bank of Nigeria, 461 U. S. 480, 488 (1983). The corporate entities in this action claim instrumentality status to invoke the Act’s provisions allowing removal of state-court actions to federal court. As the action comes to us, it presents two questions. The first is whether a corporate subsidiary can claim instrumentality status where the foreign state does not own a majority of its shares but does own a majority of the shares of a corporate parent one or more tiers above the subsidiary. The second question is whether a corporation’s instrumentality status is defined as of the time an alleged tort or other actionable wrong occurred or, on the other hand, at the time suit is filed. We granted certiorari, 536 U. S. 956 (2002). I The underlying action was filed in a state court in Hawaii in 1997 against Dole Food Company and other companies (Dole petitioners). Plaintiffs in the action were a group of farm workers from Costa Rica,…
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