Dole Food Company v. Patrickson

538 U.S. 468 (2003)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Ps, a group of foreign farm workers, alleging injury from exposure to a chemical supposedly used as a pesticide in their home countries, filed a tort action in a Hawaii state court against Dole (D). Ps were farm workers from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Panama who alleged injury from exposure to dibromochloropropanesome. Dole (D) impleaded Dead Sea Bromine Co., Ltd., and Bromine Compounds, Ltd. (Ds). Ds removed to the District Court as the two corporations asserted that they were instrumentalities of a foreign state, for purposes of the FSIA. These two corporations had been indirect subsidiaries of the State of Israel, having been separated from Israel by one or more intermediate corporate tiers. They claimed to be instrumentalities of a foreign state as defined by the FSIA, entitling them to removal under § 1441(d). The Court held that Ds were not instrumentalities of a foreign state for purposes of the FSIA and are not entitled to removal. The Court of Appeals reversed. The Court of Appeals declined to answer, the question of whether status as an instrumentality of a foreign state is assessed at the time of the alleged wrongdoing or at the time suit is filed. Ds appealed.