International Comity – Wartime Injury Remedies

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Karen Scalin, et al., v. Societe Nationale SNCF SA,

Case No.: 18-1887

Officials: EASTERBROOK and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: International Comity – Wartime Injury Remedies

During World War II the Nazi regime in Germany and nations under its domination killed millions of Jews. Plaintiffs in this suit are descendants of Jews rounded up in France after it signed an armistice with Germany in 1940. According to the complaint, persons being sent to death camps were loaded on trains operated by the French national railroad, now known as Société Nationale SNCF. The passengers’ belongings were stolen by railroad workers and handed over to the Nazis. This suit seeks compensation for those thefts.

A system in which a single district judge could countermand the decisions of multiple nations about what remedies are appropriate for wartime injuries inflicted in Europe would be unfortunate. The Executive Branch, not the Judicial Branch, is responsible for foreign relations. One can only imagine the fury in this nation if a French judge were to prescribe how much the United States must pay, and to whom, for the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II or the Trail of Tears in the nineteenth century. Each nation can decide for itself (unilaterally or through treaties) whether reparations for long-past injuries are appropriate. But because plaintiffs lack a substantive claim in this triple-foreign suit, it is unnecessary to say more about international comity.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.