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DOJ moves to dismiss Iran hostage suit

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against Iran by hostages from the 1979 hostage situation in Tehran. The class-action lawsuit, brought by from former hostages Charles Scot, David Roeder, Don Sharer, and the family of Barry Rosen, seeks $6.6 billion in damages. The DOJ argued in their motion, filed Tuesday, that the Algiers Accords precluded lawsuits against Iran in regards to the hostage situation. The plaintiffs argue that section 1083 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 allows them to bring private lawsuits against foreign governments that engage in terrorism. The DOJ responded that:While Section 1083 may create a private right of action against foreign governments like Iran for other terrorist acts, it stops far short of creating a private right of action for claims arising out of the 1979 hostage taking. Because of the Court's dismissal of plaintiffs' prior suit, Congress was well aware that only a clearly expressed abrogation of the Algiers Accords would permit a cause of action arising out of the 1979 hostage taking.In 2003, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the hostages. In that case, the US intervened and successfully argued a sufficient interest in upholding the agreement reached in the Algiers Accords and that legislation enacted since the agreement had no effect on it. In 2004, the US Supreme Court denied the petitioners' request for certiorari.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 23, 2009 (boomark / email).