Mohammadi v. Islamic Republic of Iran

• Decision Date: 03 April 2015
• Docket Number: No. 13–7109.,13–7109.
• Citation: 782 F.3d 9
• Parties: Manouchehr MOHAMMADI, et al., Appellants v. ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

782 F.3d 9

Manouchehr MOHAMMADI, et al., Appellants

v.ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, et al., Appellees.

No. 13–7109.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Oct. 20, 2014.

Decided April 3, 2015.

Larry Klayman argued the cause and filed the brief for appellant.

Before: KAVANAUGH and SRINIVASAN, Circuit Judges, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.

Opinion

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge SRINIVASAN.

SRINIVASAN, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiffs, three Iranian émigré siblings and the estate of their deceased brother, seek recovery for imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial killing they allegedly suffered at the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The district court dismissed the complaint, finding that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, principally because of defendants' foreign sovereign immunity. The court also denied plaintiffs' motion for reconsideration and their associated motion for leave to file a fourth amended complaint. We affirm the district court.

I.

As college students in Tehran during the 1990s, plaintiff Manouchehr Mohammadi and his late brother, Akbar Mohammadi, became leaders in the Iranian pro-democracy movement. As part of their political activism, the brothers participated in the 1999 student protests.

Iranian officials arrested the brothers for their role in the protests and confined them in Evin prison in Tehran, where they allegedly suffered brutal physical and psychological abuse and torture. According to plaintiffs' testimony, the brothers were repeatedly flogged, hung from the ceiling by their hands, beaten to the point of unconsciousness, burned on their genitalia, exposed to the elements, and subjected to mock executions.

Akbar's and Manouchehr's sisters, Nasrin Mohammadi and Simin Taylor, also allegedly suffered severe mistreatment at the hands of the Iranian regime. Nasrin testified that an Iranian agent attempted to murder her in Germany in 2002, and Simin claims to have been imprisoned and threatened with rape while living in Iran.

Akbar died in prison in 2006. Manouchehr fled Iran while on temporary release from prison to attend Akbar's funeral. By late 2006, the three surviving siblings all had settled in the United States. Nasrin and Simin ultimately obtained United States citizenship, and Manouchehr became a lawful permanent resident. Plaintiffs contend that Iranian agents continued to harass them in the United States, threatening them over the phone with murder, refusing to let their parents leave Iran, hacking their computers, and circulating doctored photographs of Nasrin depicted in an immodest light.

In 2009, plaintiffs brought an action to recover for their injuries. They named as defendants the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (the Revolutionary Guard), and two Iranian leaders, Ayatollah Sayid Ali Hoseyni Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on three occasions.

Because defendants never appeared in court to contest the allegations against them, plaintiffs filed a motion for entry of default and a default judgment. The district court granted the motion for entry of default and scheduled an evidentiary hearing to establish damages. The court also directed plaintiffs to submit briefing addressing the basis for the court's subject-matter jurisdiction.

Following several rounds of supplemental briefing, the district court dismissed plaintiffs' complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Mohammadi v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 947 F.Supp.2d 48 (D.D.C.2013). The court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602 et seq., afforded Iran and the Revolutionary Guard immunity from the court's jurisdiction. Mohammadi, 947 F.Supp.2d at 62–68. The court rejected plaintiffs' reliance on the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act's terrorism exception, 28 U.S.C. § 1605A. Id. That exception abrogates immunity if, among other things, the complaint seeks damages for “torture” or “extrajudicial killing” and the victim was a “national of the United States” at the time of those acts. 28 U.S.C. § 1605A(a). The district court held that plaintiffs failed to qualify as United States “nationals” at the time of the relevant acts in Iran, and that any acts postdating plaintiffs' relocation to the United States failed to constitute “torture” within the meaning of the statute. Mohammadi, 947 F.Supp.2d at 68. With regard to the individual defendants, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, the court held that the claims against them would be treated as claims against Iran itself and thus would likewise be dismissed based on foreign sovereign immunity. Id. at 72–73. Because the court concluded that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, it also denied plaintiffs' motion for default judgment.

Plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration and an accompanying motion for leave to file a fourth amended complaint. The district court denied both motions. Mohammadi v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 947 F.Supp.2d 48, 74 (D.D.C.2013), recons. denied (D.D.C. Jul. 12, 2013). Plaintiffs now appeal the dismissal of their third amended complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and the denial of their motions for reconsideration and for leave to file a fourth amended complaint.

II.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602 et seq., affords the “sole basis for obtaining jurisdiction over a foreign state” in United States courts. Argentine Republic v. Amerada Hess Shipping Corp., 488 U.S. 428, 434, 109 S.Ct. 683, 102 L.Ed.2d 818 (1989). While the FSIA establishes a general rule granting foreign sovereigns immunity from the jurisdiction of United States courts, 28 U.S.C. § 1604, that grant of immunity is subject to a number of exceptions, see id. §§ 1605 – 1607. In their third amended complaint, plaintiffs asserted subject-matter jurisdiction based solely on the FSIA's terrorism exception, 28 U.S.C. § 1605A. Reviewing the matter de novo, see National Air Traffic Controllers Ass'n v. Federal Service Impasses Panel, 606 F.3d 780, 786 (D.C.Cir.2010), we agree with the district court's conclusion that the terrorism exception is inapplicable here.

The terrorism exception abrogates immunity in cases in which a plaintiff seeks damages for personal injury or death caused by “torture, extrajudicial killing, aircraft sabotage, hostage taking, or the provision of material support or resources for such an act,” if “engaged in by an official, employee, or agent” of a foreign country. 28 U.S.C. § 1605A(a)(1). The exception further requires that (i) the foreign country was designated a “state sponsor of terrorism at the time [of] the act,” (ii) the “claimant or the victim was” a “national of the United States” at that time, and (iii) the “claimant has afforded the foreign state a reasonable opportunity to arbitrate the claim.” Id. § 1605A(a)(2).

Because Iran has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984, plaintiffs satisfy the first of those conditions. See Heiser v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 735 F.3d 934, 937 (D.C.Cir.2013) ; Roeder v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 646 F.3d 56, 58 n. 1 (D.C.Cir.2011). Plaintiffs, however, fail to satisfy the second condition with regard to the torture and extrajudicial killing allegedly committed against them while in Iran, because none of them was a “national of the United States” at the time of those acts.

The terrorism exception assigns the term “national of the United States” the “meaning given that term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act” (INA), 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(22). 28 U.S.C. § 1605A(h)(5). The referenced provision of the INA, in turn, generally describes “national of the United States” to mean either a “citizen of the United States” or a “person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(22).

Here, it is undisputed that none of the plaintiffs was a United States citizen between 1999 and 2006, when the central alleged acts of torture and extrajudicial killing occurred in Iran. Instead, plaintiffs argue that they qualified as United States nationals during that time because they “owe[d] permanent allegiance to the United States.” They assert that Manouchehr, Akbar, and Nasrin had personally pledged permanent allegiance to the United States and disclaimed their loyalty to Iran following the “first signs of persecution” in Iran, and that Nasrin exhibited her allegiance by applying for and attaining United States permanent resident status before Akbar's death in 2006. Mohammadi, 947 F.Supp.2d at 64.

Plaintiffs' argument is foreclosed by our precedent. We have held that “manifestations of ‘permanent allegiance’ do not, by themselves, render a person a U.S. national.” Lin v. United States, 561 F.3d 502, 508 (D.C.Cir.2009). That is because the “phrase ‘owes permanent allegiance’ ” in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(22) is “a term of art that denotes a legal status for which individuals have never been able to qualify by demonstrating permanent allegiance, as that phrase is colloquially understood.” Marquez–Almanzar v. INS, 418 F.3d 210, 218 (2d Cir.2005) ; see Lin, 561 F.3d at 508 (relying on Marquez–Almanzar ). The reference in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(22) to a United States national as a person who “owes permanent allegiance to the United States” is descriptive of someone who has attained the status of United States nationality through other statutory provisions; it does not itself set forth an independent basis by which to obtain that status. The language, that is, “describes, rather than confers, U.S. nationality.” Marquez–Almanzar, 418 F.3d at 218 ; see Lin, 561 F.3d at 508. The conferral of United States nationality must come from elsewhere.

The sole such statutory provision that presently confers United States nationality upon non-citizens is 8 U.S.C. § 1408. See Lin, 561 F.3d at 508 ; Marquez–Almanzar, 418 F.3d at 219. Plaintiffs make no claim that they qualify as United States nationals...