In 1992, Sister
Dianna Ortiz was the first to file a case under the act, in a civil action against former general and Defense Minister
Héctor Gramajo of
Guatemala, contending that, by his command authority, he was responsible for her abduction, rape, and torture by military forces in Guatemala in November 1989. A federal court in Massachusetts ruled in her favor, awarding her $5 million in damages in 1995. The TVPA has been used by victims of
terrorism to sue foreign states that have been designated by the U.S. as
state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iraq (which has since been removed from the list) and Iran. In May 2000, Miami based attorney Andrew C. Hall and clients David Daliberti, Bill Barloon, Chad Hall, Kenneth Beaty and their wives were awarded a collective sum of almost $19 million for the pains the men suffered in captivity. see
Daliberti v. Republic of Iraq, 97 F.Supp.2d 38 (D.D.C. 2000); and also
Weinstein v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 184 F.Supp.2d 13 (D.D.C. 2002). The
Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA), , prohibits foreign states from being sued in U.S. courts for most non-commercial issues. The
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), (a)(7), created an exception to the FSIA, allowing U.S. nationals to sue foreign states if the state has been designated as a
state sponsor of terrorism and if the plaintiff's injury has been caused by the state's support of a terrorist organization. Following the passage of the AEDPA, numerous suits have been filed against state sponsors of terrorism, particularly
Iran. Because some courts have held that the AEDPA does not create a cause of action against foreign states, plaintiffs have used the TVPA and the AEDPA in concert, first using the AEDPA to provide an exception to a foreign state's sovereign immunity, and then using the TVPA to provide a cause of action. The TVPA has also been used by victims of torture by agents of the United States. In
Meshal v. Higgenbotham, a native-born American citizen alleges U.S. officials repeatedly threatened him with torture,
forced disappearance, and other serious harm. On April 18, 2012, in
Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority, the
United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the TVPA applies exclusively to natural persons and does not impose liability against any organizational entity. The court's decision was based on the statute's use of the word "individual", as distinguished from "person" (the latter of which is usually defined in U.S. law and statutes as meaning an individual or an organization). The court examined the word both in context of its ordinary meaning and through the legislative history of the TVPA. The court noted that the original language of the TVPA bill had used the word "person" and that during a House committee markup, one of the bill's sponsors proposed an amendment "to make it clear we are applying it to individuals and not to corporations." On July 7, 2023, in
Doe I v. Cisco Systems, the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit cited
Mohamad in its decision, finding the TVPA provides a
private right of action against those who
aid and abet torture or killing. In
Doe,
Falun Gong practitioners alleged that they were victims of
human rights abuses committed by the
Chinese Communist Party and enabled by technological assistance of Cisco and two Cisco executives. ==See also==