Civil Procedure — Jurisdiction — Holocaust victims

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Civil Procedure — Jurisdiction — Holocaust victims

U.S. district courts have jurisdiction over national banks and railways alleged to have stolen property from Holocaust victims, if the victims have exhausted their remedies.

“Because plaintiffs have not exhausted their Hungarian remedies and have not yet provided a legally compelling reason for their failure to do so, they have not established that their expropriation claims fall within an exception to the FSIA’s grant of sovereign immunity. In addition, the plaintiffs suing the national railway have not established yet that the railway is engaged in commercial activity in the United States, as required to apply the expropriation exception to the FSIA. We VACATE the denials of the motions to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction by the national bank (MNB) and the national railway (MÁV) and REMAND for further consideration of the exhaustion issue. The first step will be to ensure that the defendants have already identified or now identify one or more specific remedies that are or were adequate and reasonably available to plaintiffs. If the defendants do so, the district court may stay these proceedings or dismiss without prejudice while plaintiffs pursue their claims in Hungary. If plaintiffs believe they can demonstrate a legally compelling reason for their failure to exhaust identified Hungarian remedies, one sufficient to overcome the comity due between nations, they may ask the district court for a hearing to develop the record further on this
point. In addition, the district court shall allow plaintiffs in the railway case to pursue jurisdictional discovery on the commercial activity issue and then reconsider whether the national railway is engaged in commercial activity in the United States.”

Vacated and Remanded.

11-2387 & 11-2791 Abelesz v. Magyar Zemyeti Bank

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Der-Yeghiayan, J., Hamilton, J.

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