11th Circuit Asked to Clarify Corporate Liability (against Coca-Cola bottling companies in Colombia)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1161939931304

11th Circuit Asked to Clarify Corporate Liability

Julie Kay
Daily Business Review
October 30, 2006

A federal judge in Miami has urged an appellate court to clarify key issues of corporate liability under a federal law that's been used against companies and foreign leaders for alleged human rights violations in other countries.

Late last month, U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez dismissed a human rights case against two Coca-Cola bottling companies that was brought by a Colombian labor union under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

The 2001 lawsuit alleged that Panamco and Bebidas, two independent Colombian companies that worked for Coke, assisted Colombian right-wing paramilitaries in killing several union members at the bottling plant in Colombia. The plaintiff, a Colombian labor union called Sinaltrainal, sought $500 million in punitive damages.

Martinez ruled that even though the complaint described how Panamco plant managers allowed paramilitary groups into the plant and did not stop them from leaving threatening pamphlets, there was no evidence of a direct conspiracy between the paramilitary groups and plant managers.

FULL story at link above.

[Marrak]

1. Colombia, with an "o"

:kick: