US court throws out $655.5m verdict against PA and PLO

A US appeals court on Wednesday threw out a $655.5m judgment against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation after they had been found liable to a group of American families who accused them of supporting attacks in Israel.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said a lower court judge erred in concluding it had jurisdiction over the defendants with regard to the plaintiffs' claims. The appeals court ordered the lawsuit be dismissed.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs contended the decision contradicted the spirit of the Anti-Terror Act under which the lawsuit had been filed, and which had been passed after the terrorist slaying of Leon Klinghoffer in 1985, the Jewish Times website reported.

Attorney Kent Yalowitz said in a statement: “The very terrorists who prompted the law have now hidden behind the US Constitution to avoid responsibility for their crimes.”

He added that the plaintiffs may consider requesting a review by the full 2nd Circuit or possibly file an appeal to the US Supreme Court, according to the Jewish Times. He also called for intervention by Congress and the State Department.

Attorney Gassan Baloul, representing the PA and PLO, praised the decision, saying in a statement: “We are very gratified that the court fully accepted our clients’ consistent position that the PA and the PLO are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States courts in these matters.”

In February 2015, a federal jury found the defendants liable in six shootings and bombings between 2002 and 2004 in the Jerusalem area that killed 33 people, including several Americans, and wounded more than 450.

Jurors awarded $218.5m, a sum automatically tripled under a US anti-terrorism law to $655.5m.

But the appeals court said neither the attacks nor the Palestinian groups had sufficient ties to the US for the defendants to be subject to federal court jurisdiction. It also found no evidence the attacks specifically targeted American citizens.

"The terror machine gun attacks and suicide bombings that triggered this suit and victimized these plaintiffs were unquestionably horrific," Judge John Koeltl wrote for the appeals court.

"But the federal courts cannot exercise jurisdiction in a civil case beyond the limits prescribed by the due process clause of the Constitution, no matter how horrendous the underlying attacks or morally compelling the plaintiffs' claims."