Bank Melli v. Michael Bennett, et al.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (“TRIA”) provides that “the blocked assets of [a] terrorist party (including the blocked assets of any agency or instrumentality of that terrorist party)” are subject to execution to satisfy certain terrorism judgments. 28 U.S.C. § 1610 note § 201(a). In the decision below, the Ninth Circuit allowed plaintiffs with default judgments against Iran to execute against funds that Visa owes to Bank Melli, an Iranian state-owned bank. It did so even though Visa rather than Bank Melli is the owner of the assets, and even though Bank Melli is a separate entity distinct from the Iranian government that had no role in the underlying disputes. The questions presented are:

1. Whether TRIA requires that the respondent actually own the assets at issue, as the D.C. Circuit has held and as the United States has repeatedly urged, or whether the statute instead permits execution even absent ownership, as the Ninth Circuit held below.

2. Whether TRIA permits plaintiffs to execute judgments against a foreign sovereign’s juridically separate instrumentalities, contrary to the presumption of separate status established by this Court’s precedents and the Nation’s treaty obligations. (i)