Daimler Must Face Claims Over Argentina ‘Dirty War’ Worker Kidnappings

[Judi Lynn]

Daimler Must Face Claims Over Argentina ‘Dirty War’ Worker Kidnappings
By Karen Gullo - May 18, 2011 2:28 PM CT

Daimler AG (DAI) must face a U.S. lawsuit alleging its Argentine Mercedes-Benz unit collaborated with state security forces to kill and torture workers during the so- called Dirty War 35 years ago, an appeals court ruled.

A federal district court had dismissed the case, which was filed in California in 2004, saying it had no jurisdiction because the Stuttgart, Germany-based company, then known as DaimlerChrysler AG, and its U.S. unit didn’t have sufficient contacts within the state.

A three-judge appeals court panel in San Francisco today said the parent company could be sued in California because the U.S. unit of Mercedes-Benz was the German company’s agent. California’s Mercedes-Benz sales accounted for 2.4 percent of DaimlerChrysler’s total worldwide sales at the time the suit was filed, according to the court, which didn’t rule on the merits of the case. The appeals panel sent the case back to a federal judge in San Jose, California.

~snip~
Some of the plaintiffs are former employees of Mercedes- Benz Argentina who were allegedly kidnapped, detained or tortured. Plaintiffs also include relatives of workers who disappeared and are presumed to have been murdered during the Dirty War, which began in 1976 when the military overthrew the government of President Isabel Peron.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-18/daimler-must-face-claims-over-argentina-dirty-war-worker-kidnappings.html

~~~
Metropolitan News-Enterprise
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Court Revives Suit Over Alleged Involvement in ‘Dirty War’
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer

A federal court in California has jurisdiction over a suit against the maker of Mercedes-Benz automobiles by former residents of Argentina who claim they were kidnapped, detained, or tortured by security forces directed by a subsidiary of the company, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday.

The decision represents an about-face for the three-judge panel, which ruled in 2009 that personal jurisdiction did not exist over DaimlerChrysler AG, which is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany and does not have an agent for service in California.

The court, however, withdrew its opinion last year and reached the opposite conclusion yesterday. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who dissented from the original ruling, authored the opinion for a unanimous panel.

‘Dirty War’

The plaintiffs are 23 citizens and residents of Argentina who claim they, or members of their families. They claim that Mercedes Benz Argentina had a close relationship with the regime, which worked with the company in targeting those believed to be working with leftist trade unions during the “Dirty War” of the 1970s and 1980s.

More:
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2011/baum051911.htm