A coal mining company has been cleared of human rights abuse charges in
the first completed trial against a corporation to be brought under the
Alien Tort Claims statute in the US.
Alabama-based Drummond Coal was found not guilty of having played any
role in the killing of three union leaders in Colombia by
paramilitaries six years ago. Relatives of the dead men, who had
brought the lawsuit, claimed Drummond was complicit in the killings,
and intend to appeal.
However, the wider significance of the case is that it shows that US
corporations can be brought to court in the US under the Alien Tort
Claims Act for alleged misdemeanours abroad. Over the past decade,
human rights groups have begun to use the Act, which was introduced in
1789 to fight piracy, to pursue companies for alleged human rights
abuses on foreign territory. But until last month’s verdict, no case
had reached a jury, either because of extended legal wranglings about
the validity of using the law for such a prosecution or because the
parties settled out of court.
Cynthia Williams, business law professor at Toronto’s York University,
said it was ‘significant’ that the Drummond case had proceeded to a
judgement, because this showed there was no legal impediment to such
lawsuits being heard.
Other companies currently embroiled in lawsuits under the statute
include Chevron, Chiquita, Coca-Cola, Firestone, Shell, and Wal-Mart.
Robert Mittelstaedt of legal firm Jones Day, which is representing
Chevron, predicted a rash of lawsuits based on ‘wild allegations’, but
Drummond’s legal representative felt the not guilty verdict ‘might
discourage overuse of this statute’.
