Monday, September 17, 2007
From the AP:
SEATTLE, Sep 18, 2007 (AP via COMTEX) -- A federal appeals court panel has refused to reinstate a lawsuit brought against Caterpillar Inc. by the family of a 23-year-old peace activist crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer.
The three judges on a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the lawsuit presented foreign policy questions best left to the White House.
Rachel Corrie, of Olympia, Washington, was crushed in 2003 by a 60-ton Israeli bulldozer as she stood before a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip. Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, sued Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar, which manufactured the bulldozer, seeking to hold the company civilly liable for aiding and abetting human rights violations -- the destruction of civilian homes.
Shares of Caterpillar rose $1.15, or 1.6 percent, to $74.31 in Monday trade.
Update: PDF of the decision. [via Discarded Lies]
In a way it's too bad this suit didn't proceed, as I'm sure Caterpillar's lawyers might have had a chance to set the record straight as to Ms. Corrie's actual cause of death.
Besides, in insurance law, Corrie's "voluntary assumption of risk" would provide Caterpillar a pretty formidable defence against liability.
"The ISM claimed the bulldozer intentionally ran her over and killed her. After extensive investigation, the IDF concluded that the driver could not see her and that her death was an unfortunate accident. The IDF Judge Advocate’s Office concluded: 'The driver at no point saw or heard Corrie. She was standing behind debris which obstructed the view of the driver and the driver had a very limited field of vision due to the protective cage he was working in.' An autopsy revealed that the bulldozer never rolled over Corrie: she was killed when debris dislodged by the bulldozer struck her head."