Wyatt v. Syrian Arab Republic

• Decision Date: 03 March 2005
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 01-1628 (RMU).
• Citation: 362 F.Supp.2d 103
• Parties: Mary Nell WYATT et al., Plaintiffs, v. SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

362 F.Supp.2d 103

Mary Nell WYATT et al., Plaintiffs, v. SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 01-1628 (RMU).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

March 3, 2005.

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David Jacob Strachman, McIntyre, Tate, Lynch & Holt, Providence, RI, for Plaintiffs.

Abdeen M. Jabara, New York City, Maher Hanna Hanania, Hanania Kheder & Nawash, Falls Church, VA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

URBINA, District Judge.

DENYING SYRIA'S MOTION TO DISMISS; ORDERING THE PARTIES TO SUBMIT A JOINT JURISDICTIONAL DISCOVERY PLAN; GRANTING THE PLAINTIFFS LEAVE TO AMEND THEIR COMPLAINT WITH A MORE SPECIFIC STATEMENT OF THE LAW ON WHICH THEY WILL BASE THEIR CAUSES OF ACTION

I. INTRODUCTION

This case involves the defendant's alleged support of a terrorist group (the Kurdistan Workers Party or "PKK") that abducted and held certain of the plaintiffs hostage in the early 1990s. The plaintiffs seek damages from the Syrian Arab Republic ("Syria" or the "defendant") and the PKK for injuries resulting from the alleged hostage taking. Syria now moves to dismiss, claiming that the court lacks personal and subject-matter jurisdiction and that the plaintiffs fail to state a claim. For the reasons that follow, the court denies Syria's motion to dismiss on personal jurisdiction grounds; denies without prejudice Syria's motion to dismiss on subject-matter jurisdiction grounds; orders the parties to submit a plan for conducting discovery on Syria's alleged support of the PKK; denies without prejudice Syria's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim; and grants the plaintiffs leave to amend their complaint to include a more specific statement of the law on which they will base their causes of action.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The plaintiffs allege as follows. On August 30, 1991, several of the plaintiffs (Ronald E. Wyatt and Marvin T. Wilson) were traveling in a van in Turkey when they "were stopped and surrounded by approximately ten vehicles commanded by the PKK." 2d Am. Compl. ("Compl.") ¶ 20. The PKK entered the van, removed the plaintiffs at gunpoint, and eventually held Wyatt and Wilson for twenty-one days in eastern Turkey. Id. ¶¶ 21-22. The PKK forced Wyatt and Wilson to

march for up to eleven hours at a time and made [them] live outdoors exposed to the elements without food, shelter, or clothing ... denied [Wyatt and Wilson] medical care, the ability to communicate with their families or the outside world, subjected [them] to indoctrination and brainwashing attempts and ... otherwise mistreated [them].

Id. ¶ 22.

The PKK and Syria "intended" the hostage-taking to (a) harm Turkish tourism (b) embarrass the Turkish government; and (c) "utilize Wyatt and Wilson (and the other non-party hostages) as human bait to lure Turkish rescue personnel into ambushes in order to kill them." Id. ¶ 23. The PKK placed certain demands and conditions on the release of Wyatt and Wilson; the PKK made these demands and conditions to "outside parties," including governments of the United States, Britain, Australia, and Turkey. Id. ¶ 23. In particular, the PKK demanded that: (a) the United States terminate its financial and military support of Turkey; (b) the United States, Britain, Australia and Turkey support an independent Kurdish state; (c) the international community recognize the PKK's right to control portions of Turkish territory; and (d) the Turkish government provide increased civil rights to Kurds. Id.

The plaintiffs further allege that

[a]t all times relevant to this complaint and for at least a decade prior to the abduction of plaintiffs, Syria routinely provided financial, technical, logistical and other material support and resources to the PKK for the express purpose of causing and facilitating the commission of terrorist acts, including acts of extrajudicial killing and hostage-taking.

Id. ¶ 28. As examples of this support, the plaintiffs cite Syria's (a) assistance and participation in hostage-taking (including the hostage-taking of Wyatt and Wilson); (b) supply of weapons, ammunition, and false passports to the PKK; (c) establishment and maintenance of the PKK headquarters and offices in Syria; (d) provision of a safe haven and shelter in Syria to senior PKK commanders; (e) establishment and maintenance of various PKK training and military bases; (f) provision of military and terrorist training to PKK members; and (g) establishment and maintenance of PKK's logistical infrastructure in Syria. Id. ¶ 29.

B. Procedural History

The plaintiffs filed their initial complaint in July 2001 and an amended complaint in March 2003. In February 2004, in light of Cicippio-Puleo v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 353 F.3d 1024 (D.C.Cir.2004), this court sua sponte granted the plaintiffs leave to amend their complaint "to clarify the jurisdictional basis for suit, the defendants and the capacity in which each defendant is sued, the cause of action for each claim, the relief requested for each claim, and any other matters affected by the intervening precedent." Mem. Op. (Feb. 23, 2004) at 1-2. The plaintiffs filed their second amended complaint on March 18, 2004. In that complaint, the plaintiffs listed as defendants the Syrian Arab Republic, the Syrian Ministry of Defense, Mustafa Tlass (the Syrian Minister of Defense), Ghazi Kanaan (a Syrian military officer), and the PKK. Compl. ¶¶ 15-19.

The defendants (with the exception of the PKK) filed their motion to dismiss in May 2004. Believing that Syria's motion attacked the factual basis of the court's subject-matter jurisdiction, in September 2004 the plaintiffs moved to compel jurisdictional discovery. The court granted the plaintiffs' motion in November 2004 and ordered the parties to submit a joint jurisdictional discovery plan. Syria moved for reconsideration several days later, arguing that the court should avoid discovery because the complaint could be dismissed on grounds that would not subject a foreign sovereign to burdensome discovery. On December 14, 2004, the court granted Syria's motion for reconsideration, holding that the most appropriate course of action would be for the parties to complete the chain of briefing on Syria's motion to dismiss prior to any discovery. Accordingly the parties never submitted a discovery plan.

On January 26, 2005, the plaintiffs filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of their claims against the Syrian Ministry of Defense, Mustafa Tlass, and Ghazi Kanaan. Pls.' Notice of Dismissal at 1. Thus, the only defendants remaining in this case are Syria and the PKK. Finally, on February 15, 2005, the plaintiffs (irked by what the plaintiffs label as Syria's "maneuver of breathtakingly blatant bad-faith," "bait-and-switch" tactics, and a "frivolous and pointless claim") submitted a motion to strike certain sections of Syria's reply to the plaintiffs' opposition to Syria's motion to dismiss. Pls.' Mot. to Strike at 2. Rather than wait for the chain of briefing to come to a close on this latest submission, the court moves forward, mindful of the arguments in the plaintiffs' motion, expecting that the parties will work together in a more collegial manner, and quite confident that the court will craft an appropriate response to the mischief or other inappropriate behavior which may surface as this case proceeds.

III. ANALYSIS

A. The Court Denies Syria's Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Subject-Matter Jurisdiction

1. Legal Standard for a Rule 12(b)(1) Motion to Dismiss Under the FSIA

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ("FSIA") is "the sole basis for obtaining jurisdiction over a foreign state in our courts." Argentine Republic v. Amerada Hess Shipping Corp., 488 U.S. 428, 434, 109 S.Ct. 683, 102 L.Ed.2d 818 (1989). The basic premise of the FSIA is that foreign sovereigns are immune from suit in the United States unless the action falls under one of the specific exceptions enumerated in the statute. 28 U.S.C. § 1604; Price v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, 389 F.3d 192, 196 (D.C.Cir.2004) ("Price II"). If the foreign sovereign is not immune, the federal district courts have exclusive jurisdiction over the action. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1330, 1604; Daliberti v. Republic of Iraq, 97 F.Supp.2d 38, 42 (D.D.C.2000) (citing Amerada Hess, 488 U.S. at 434-35, 109 S.Ct. 683).

Under the FSIA, the foreign sovereign has "immunity from trial and the attendant burdens of litigation, and not just a defense to liability on the merits." Phoenix Consulting, Inc. v. Republic of Angola, 216 F.3d 36, 39 (D.C.Cir.2000) (quoting Foremost-McKesson, Inc. v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 905 F.2d 438, 443 (D.C.Cir.1990)). The special circumstances of a foreign sovereign require the court to engage in more than the usual pretrial factual and legal determinations. Foremost-McKesson, 905 F.2d at 449. The D.C. Circuit has noted that it is particularly important that the court "satisfy itself of its authority to hear the case" before trial. Id. (quoting Prakash v. Am. Univ., 727 F.2d 1174, 1179 (D.C.Cir.1984)).

Once a foreign-sovereign defendant asserts immunity, the plaintiff bears the burden of producing evidence to show that there is no immunity and that the court therefore has jurisdiction over the plaintiff's claims. Daliberti, 97 F.Supp.2d at 42 (citations omitted). A court may dismiss a complaint brought under the FSIA only if it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claims that would entitle him to relief. Id. (citations omitted). Once the plaintiff has shown that the foreign defendant is not immune from suit, the defendant bears the burden of proving that the plaintiff's allegations do not bring the case within one of the statutory exceptions to immunity. Phoenix Consulting, 216 F.3d at 40.

The exception to foreign sovereign immunity at issue in this case is the state-sponsored terrorism exception, codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(7), that Congress...