Obb Personenverkehr Ag v. Sachs (577 U.S. 27)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 1, 2015 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 577 U.S. 27 · 136 S. Ct. 390
- Decided
- December 1, 2015
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act shields foreign states and their agencies from suit in United States courts unless the suit falls within one of the Act's specifically enumerated exceptions. This case concerns the scope of the commercial activity exception, which withdraws sovereign immunity in any case "in which the action is based upon a commercial activity carried on in the United States by [a] foreign state." 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(2). Respondent Carol Sachs is a resident of California who purchased in the United States a Eurail pass for rail travel in Europe. She suffered traumatic personal injuries when she fell onto the tracks at the Innsbruck, Austria, train station while attempting to board a train operated by the Austrian state-owned railway. She sued the railway in Federal District Court, arguing that her suit was not barred by sovereign immunity because it is "based upon" the railway's sale of the pass to her in the United States. We disagree and conclude that her action is instead "based upon" the railway's conduct in Innsbruck. We therefore hold that her suit falls outside the commercial activity exception and is barred by sovereign immunity. I A Petitioner OBB Personenverkehr AG (OBB) operates a railway that carries nearly 235 million passengers each year on routes within Austria and to and from points…
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