Ford, IBM win dismissal of 12-year lawsuit over apartheid abuses
A Manhattan federal judge has dismissed a 12-year-old lawsuit accusing Ford Motor Co (F.N) and IBM Corp (IBM.N) of encouraging human rights abuses in apartheid-era South Africa, reluctantly concluding that the case does not belong in U.S. courts.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin on Thursday said the black South Africans who brought the case did not show “relevant conduct” by Ford and IBM within the United States to justify holding the companies liable.
The plaintiffs had accused Ford, IBM and other companies of having between the 1970s and early 1990s aided South Africa’s former apartheid government in abuses such as killings and torture, by having made military vehicles and computers for government security forces.
“That these plaintiffs are left without relief in an American court is regrettable,” Scheindlin wrote. “But I am bound to follow [legal precedent], no matter what my personal view of the law may be.”
Source: Reuters
