In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, families of the victims and other injured entities (together, the families) (plaintiffs) sued allegedly responsible parties, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) and the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia & Herzegovina (SHC) (defendants). The families pleaded or sought to plead the following facts: Saudi Arabia and the SHC had a policy of donating humanitarian-relief funds to organizations in Saudi Arabia; due to negligence, the funds ended up in the hands of al-Qaeda for use in terrorist activities; in addition, four individuals who were nationals of Saudi Arabia allegedly supported the September 11 airplane hijackers; Abdul Rahman Hussayen, a nondescript Saudi governmental official, stayed at the same hotel in the same timeframe as three of the airplane hijackers; Omar al Bayoumi was an employee of a Saudi civil-aviation department who assisted the hijackers in acclimating to life in the United States; Osama Basnan was associated with the Saudi Embassy and was “being groomed to replace Bayoumi”; and Fahad al Thumairy, a Saudi official, met with al Bayoumi regarding the hijackers’ arrival in the United States. As to their conduct in the United States, none of the individuals were alleged to be acting in an official capacity as a representative of the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia and the SHC moved to dismiss the families’ complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. It was uncontested that the only potentially applicable basis for jurisdiction was the noncommercial-tort exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).