Justices Consider Personal Jurisdiction In Human Rights Suit Against DaimlerChrysler

The U.S. Supreme Court considered the limits of personal jurisdiction during oral argument Oct. 15 in a dispute involving foreign union supporters suing a German corporation in a U.S. court over alleged harms in third countries (DaimlerChrysler AG v. Bauman, U.S., No. 11-965).

The court appeared skeptical of the view of general personal jurisdiction laid out in the ruling below from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Twenty-two Argentinian residents sued DaimlerChrysler AG in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The plaintiffs allege that during Argentina’s “Dirty War” in the 1970s, ...