Mohamad v. Palestinian Auth.

• Decision Date: 18 April 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–88.,11–88.
• Citation: 132 S.Ct. 1702,182 L.Ed.2d 720,566 U.S. 449
• Parties: Asid MOHAMAD, individually and for the Estate of Azzam Rahim, Deceased, et al., Petitioners v. PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY et al.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

566 U.S. 449

132 S.Ct. 1702

182 L.Ed.2d 720

Asid MOHAMAD, individually and for the Estate of Azzam Rahim, Deceased, et al., Petitioners

v.PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY et al.

No. 11–88.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued Feb. 28, 2012.

Decided April 18, 2012.

Jeffrey L. Fisher, Stanford, CA, for Petitioners.

Laura G. Ferguson, Washington, DC, for Respondents.

Curtis E. Gannon, for the United States, as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court, supporting the Respondents.

Jeffrey L. Fisher, Counsel of Record, Pamela S. Karlan, Jenny S. Martinez, Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Stanford, CA, Nathaniel A. Tarnor, Tarnor, PLLC, Washington, DC, Robert J. Tolchin, The Berkman Law Office LLC, Brooklyn, NY, Thomas C. Goldstein, Kevin K. Russell, Goldstein & Russell, P.C., Washington, DC, for Petitioners.

Jeffrey A. Lamken, Robert K. Kry, Martin V. Totaro, MoloLamken LLP, Washington, DC, Laura G. Ferguson, Counsel of Record, Richard A. Hibey, Mark J. Rochon, Dawn E. Murphy–Johnson, Miller & Chevalier Chtd., Washington, DC, for Respondents.

Justice SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court.^*

The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (TVPA or Act), 106 Stat. 73, note following 28 U.S.C. § 1350, authorizes a cause of action against "[a]n individual" for acts of torture and extrajudicial killing committed under authority or color of law of any foreign nation. We hold that the term "individual" as used in the Act encompasses only natural persons . Consequently, the Act does not impose liability against organizations.

I

Because this case arises from a motion to dismiss, we accept as true the allegations of the complaint. Ashcroft v. al–Kidd, 563 U.S. ––––, ––––, 131 S.Ct. 2074, 2079, 179 L.Ed.2d 1149 (2011). Petitioners are the relatives of Azzam Rahim, who immigrated to the United States in the 1970's and became a naturalized citizen. In 1995, while on a visit to the West Bank, Rahim was arrested by Palestinian Authority intelligence officers. He was taken to a prison in Jericho, where he was imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately killed. The following year, the U.S. Department of State issued a report concluding that Rahim "died in the custody of [Palestinian Authority] intelligence officers in Jericho."

Dept. of State, Occupied Territories Human Rights Practices, 1995 (Mar. 1996).

In 2005, petitioners filed this action against respondents, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, asserting, inter alia, claims of torture and extrajudicial killing under the TVPA. The District Court granted respondents' motion to dismiss, concluding, as relevant, that the Act's authorization of suit against "[a]n individual" extended liability only to natural persons. Mohamad v. Rajoub, 664 F.Supp.2d 20, 22 (D.D.C.2009). The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed on the same ground. See Mohamad v. Rajoub, 634 F.3d 604, 608 (2011) ("Congress used the word ‘individual’ to denote only natural persons").¹ We granted certiorari, 565 U.S. ––––, 132 S.Ct. 454, 181 L.Ed.2d 292 (2011), to resolve a split among the Circuits with respect to whether the TVPA authorizes actions against defendants that are not natural persons,² and now affirm.

II

The TVPA imposes liability on individuals for certain acts of torture and extrajudicial killing. The Act provides:

"An individual who, under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation—

"(1) subjects an individual to torture shall, in a civil action, be liable for damages to that individual; or

"(2) subjects an individual to extrajudicial killing shall, in a civil action, be liable for damages to the individual's legal representative, or to any person who may be a claimant in an action for wrongful death." § 2(a).

The Act defines "torture" and "extrajudicial killing," § 3, and imposes a statute of limitations and an exhaustion requirement, §§ 2(b), (c). It does not define "individual."

Petitioners concede that foreign states may not be sued under the Act—namely, that the Act does not create an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, 28 U.S.C. § 1602 et seq ., which renders foreign sovereigns largely immune from suits in U.S. courts. They argue, however, that the TVPA does not similarly restrict liability against other juridical entities. In petitioners' view, by permitting suit against "[a]n individual," the TVPA contemplates liability against natural persons and nonsovereign organizations (a category that, petitioners assert, includes respondents). We decline to read "individual" so unnaturally. The ordinary meaning of the word, fortified by its statutory context, persuades us that the Act authorizes suit against natural persons alone.

A

Because the TVPA does not define the term "individual," we look first to the word's ordinary meaning. See FCC v. AT&T Inc., 562 U.S. ––––, ––––, 131 S.Ct. 1177, 1182, 179 L.Ed.2d 132 (2011) ("When a statute does not define a term, we typically give the phrase its ordinary meaning" (internal quotation marks omitted)). As a noun, "individual" ordinarily means "[a] human being, a person." 7 Oxford English Dictionary 880 (2d ed. 1989); see also, e.g., Random House Dictionary of the English Language 974 (2d ed. 1987) ("a person"); Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1152 (1986) ("a particular person") (hereinafter Webster's). After all, that is how we use the word in everyday parlance. We say "the individual went to the store," "the individual left the room," and "the individual took the car," each time referring unmistakably to a natural person. And no one, we hazard to guess, refers in normal parlance to an organization as an "individual." Evidencing that common usage, this Court routinely uses "individual" to denote a natural person, and in particular to distinguish between a natural person and a corporation. See, e.g., Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown, 564 U.S. ––––, ––––, 131 S.Ct. 2846, 2853–54, 180 L.Ed.2d 796 (2011) ("For an individual, the paradigm forum for the exercise of general jurisdiction is the individual's domicile; for a corporation, it is an equivalent place, one in which the corporation is fairly regarded as at home").

Congress does not, in the ordinary course, employ the word any differently. The Dictionary Act instructs that "[i]n determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise ... the wor[d] ‘person’ ... include[s] corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals." 1 U.S.C. § 1 (emphasis added). With the phrase "as well as," the definition marks "individual" as distinct from the list of artificial entities that precedes it.

In a like manner, federal statutes routinely distinguish between an "individual" and an organizational entity of some kind. See, e.g., 7 U.S.C. § 92(k) (" ‘Person’ includes partnerships, associations, and corporations, as well as individuals"); § 511 (same) ; 15 U.S.C. § 717a (" ‘Person’ includes an individual or a corporation"); 16 U.S.C. § 796 (" ‘[P]erson’ means an individual or a corporation"); 8 U.S.C. § 1101(b)(3) (" ‘[P]erson’ means an individual or an organization"). Indeed, the very same Congress that enacted the TVPA also established a cause of action for U.S. nationals injured "by reason of an act of international terrorism" and defined "person" as it appears in the statute to include "any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property." Federal Courts Administration Act of 1992, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2333(a), 2331(3) (emphasis added).

B

This is not to say that the word "individual" invariably means "natural person" when used in a statute. Congress remains free, as always, to give the word a broader or different meaning. But before we will assume it has done so, there must be some indication Congress intended such a result. Perhaps it is the rare statute (petitioners point to only one such example, located in the Internal Revenue Code) in which Congress expressly defines "individual" to include corporate entities. See 26 U.S.C. § 542(a)(2). Or perhaps, as was the case in Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417, 429, 118 S.Ct. 2091, 141 L.Ed.2d 393 (1998), the statutory context makes that intention clear, because any other reading of "individual" would lead to an " ‘absurd’ " result Congress could not plausibly have intended.

There are no such indications in the TVPA. As noted, the Act does not define "individual," much less do so in a manner that extends the term beyond its ordinary usage. And the statutory context strengthens—not undermines—the conclusion that Congress intended to create a cause of action against natural persons alone. The Act's liability provision uses the word "individual" five times in the same sentence: once to refer to the perpetrator (i.e., the defendant) and four times to refer to the victim. See § 2(a). Only a natural person can be a victim of torture or extrajudicial killing. "Since there is a presumption that a given term is used to mean the same thing throughout a statute, a presumption surely at its most vigorous when a term is repeated within a given sentence," Brown v. Gardner, 513 U.S. 115, 118, 115 S.Ct. 552, 130 L.Ed.2d 462 (1994) (citation omitted), it is difficult indeed to conclude that Congress employed the term "individual" four times in one sentence to refer to a natural person and once to refer to a natural person and any nonsovereign organization. See also § 3(b)(1) (using term "individual" six times in referring to victims of torture).

It is also revealing that the Act holds perpetrators liable for extrajudicial killing to "any person who may be a claimant in an action for wrongful death." § 2(a)(2) (emphasis added). "Person," we have recognized, often has a broader meaning in the law than "individual," see Clinton, 524 U.S., at 428, n. 13, 118 S.Ct. 2091, and frequently includes nonnatural persons, see, e....