MICHAEL BENNETT AND LINDA BENNETT, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS CO-ADMINISTRATORS OF THE ESTATE OF MARLA ANN BENNETT, DECEASED, APPELLANTS v. ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, ET AL., APPELLEES
No. 09-5147
United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
Argued January 15, 2010 Decided September 10, 2010
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 1:03-cv-01486-RCL)
Samantha L. Chaifetz, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for appellees. With her on the brief was Douglas N. Letter, Attorney. R. Craig Lawrence, Assistant U.S. Attorney, entered an appearance.
Before: ROGERS, GARLAND and GRIFFITH, Circuit Judges.
Opinion concurring in the judgment filed by Circuit Judge GARLAND.
GRIFFITH, Circuit Judge: To satisfy a default judgment against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security, Michael and Linda Bennett obtained writs of attachment against five of Iran‘s former diplomatic properties located in the District of Columbia. The United States moved to quash the writs on the ground that section 201 of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act precluded the attachments. The district court granted the government‘s motion, and we affirm.
I.
The Bennetts’ daughter, Marla Ann, was a student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem when a bombing at the school took her life. Hamas claimed responsibility for the murder. The Bennetts sued in the district court alleging that Iran‘s support for Hamas played a part in the bombing that killed their daughter. The Bennetts won a default judgment against Iran in excess of $12 million. Bennett v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 507 F. Supp. 2d 117 (D.D.C. 2007).
To satisfy the judgment, the Bennetts obtained writs of attachment against Iran‘s former embassy, ambassador‘s residence, and another diplomatic residence, as well as two parking lots. The United States has been the custodian of these properties since April 7, 1980, when it cut diplomatic ties with Iran in response to the take-over of the American Embassy in Tehran. See U.S. Dep‘t of State Office of the Legal Adviser, Digest of United States Practice in International Law 1980, at 40–41, 333–34; see also Exec.
The United States appeared in the post-judgment proceeding and moved to quash the writs on the ground that the properties were not subject to attachment. The district court granted the government‘s motion. Bennett v. Islamic Republic of Iran, No. 03-1486 (D.D.C. Mar. 31, 2009). The Bennetts appealed, and we have jurisdiction pursuant to
II.
Diplomatic properties are generally immune from attachment. See
The government and the Bennetts agree that the properties subject to the writs are seized assets belonging to a state sponsor of terrorism and that their attachment would satisfy a judgment for compensatory damages for an act of terrorism. It is contested, however, whether the properties are subject to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and “[are] being used exclusively for diplomatic or consular purposes.” TRIA § 201(d)(2)(B)(ii). The Bennetts concede that all the properties except the diplomatic residence are subject to the Vienna Convention. They have forfeited the argument that the residence is not because they raised it for the first time on appeal. See Potter v. District of Columbia, 558 F.3d 542, 547 (D.C. Cir. 2009). That leaves us with only the question of whether the properties are “being used exclusively for diplomatic or consular purposes.” TRIA § 201(d)(2)(B)(ii).
The United States claims that it has held the attached properties in custody since 1980 to fulfill its obligations under Article 45 of the Vienna Convention to “respect and protect” the premises of a former mission after diplomatic relations between two states have been severed, as well as the Foreign Missions Act. See Decl. of Claude J. Nebel, Deputy Assistant
There is no dispute that the United States has used these properties for a diplomatic purpose. The Bennetts have conceded this point. Appellants’ Br. at 16. According to the government, that concession resolves the dispute because the sole inquiry under the statute is the purpose for which the United States uses the properties. The Bennetts insist that the statute requires us to look at the nature of the use as well.
“Statutory construction must begin with the language employed by Congress and the assumption that the ordinary meaning of that language accurately expresses the legislative purpose.” Engine Mfrs. Ass‘n v. South Coast Air Quality Management Dist., 541 U.S. 246, 252 (2004). The Bennetts contend that renting the properties to third parties is a nondiplomatic use, which makes the properties subject to attachment. Their argument assumes that TRIA‘s protection from attachment requires a diplomatic use of the property. That requirement finds no support in the text of the statute, which provides only that the property “is being used exclusively for diplomatic and consular purposes.” TRIA § 201(d)(2)(B)(ii) (emphasis added). The adjectives “diplomatic” and “consular” modify the noun “purpose,” not
The Bennetts argue that our reading of section 201(d)(2)(B)(ii) is mistaken because it fails to take into account section 201(b)(2)(A) of TRIA, which creates another means to protect from attachment properties subject to the Vienna Conventions. Section 201(b)(2)(A) authorizes the President to immunize such properties from attachment so long as they have not “been used by the United States for any nondiplomatic purpose (including use as rental property).” TRIA § 201(b)(2)(A). The parenthetical phrase, the Bennetts argue, establishes that any “use” of a seized asset “as a rental property” invariably has a nondiplomatic purpose. Not only is that not true as a descriptive matter, but that view of the
We are equally unpersuaded by the Bennetts’ argument that our interpretation of section 201(d)(2)(B)(ii) renders this provision superfluous because it duplicates protection already found in the Foreign Missions Act. Unlike two provisions within a single statute, we need not construe separate statutes to avoid redundancy. Cf. U.S. ex rel Miller v. Bill Harbert Intern. Const., Inc., 608 F.3d 871, 885-86 (D.C. Cir. 2010) (regarding as effective overlapping statutes capable of coexistence). In any event, these statutes are not duplicative. To be sure, the Foreign Missions Act prohibits attachment of foreign mission property in custody of the State Department. See
Finally, we note that it may very well be that the private parties who rented the properties did so in service of nondiplomatic ends. But their purposes are irrelevant to the protection Congress provided for these properties. TRIA says
Our concurring colleague finds the statute ambiguous on this point, and concludes that the use to which a private tenant puts a former diplomatic property may render it subject to attachment under TRIA. Concurring Op. at 2-3. But if there were such ambiguity, we would still conclude that attachment is precluded in light of the fundamental canon of statutory interpretation that “[a] treaty will not be deemed to have been abrogated or modified by a later statute unless such purpose on the part of Congress has been clearly expressed.” Cook v. United States, 288 U.S. 102, 120 (1933); see Roeder v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 333 F.3d 228, 237 (D.C. Cir. 2003). Congress, in defining the terrorist state property available for attachment, explicitly carved out an exception to enable the United States to fulfill its treaty obligations under the Vienna Convention. TRIA § 201(d)(2)(B)(ii). In this case, permitting attachment would render the United States unable to respect and protect Iran‘s former diplomatic properties as required by Article 45 of the Vienna Convention. We do not think Congress intended to construct such obstacles to the performance of the nation‘s obligations under the Vienna Convention.
Because there is no question that the sole purpose for which the United States rented the properties was to facilitate compliance with its treaty obligations under the Vienna Convention, the properties are not subject to attachment under TRIA. As the Fifth Circuit has explained, “by using rental
III.
The judgment is
Affirmed.
MICHAEL BENNETT AND LINDA BENNETT, APPELLANTS v. ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, ET AL., APPELLEES
No. 09-5147
United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
I concede that congressional drafting has not made our task easy. The difficulty arises because the section is written in the passive voice -- referring to property that “is being used exclusively” -- which leaves unanswered the question: being used by whom? My colleagues conclude that the section refers solely to use by the United States. They therefore hold that the tenant‘s use of the property is irrelevant as long as the State Department‘s only purpose in renting it is to generate revenue to comply with its Vienna Convention obligations.
This reading is reasonable, but I do not think it is the better interpretation. No one would say that property a tenant uses as a gin joint is being used exclusively for educational purposes, even if the landlord uses the rent to send his children to college. Nor is the court‘s reading supported by the fact that TRIA applies only to property “seized or frozen by the United States.” TRIA § 201(d)(2)(A) (emphasis added). The italicized phrase tells us which actor‘s seizure is relevant, but it does not tell us which actor‘s use is. Indeed, the fact that Congress added “by the United States” to the description of the seizure of property in § 201(d)(2)(A), but not to the description of the use of property in § 201(d)(2)(B), suggests it thought that the uses to
This inference is further supported by the waiver provision of TRIA, which authorizes the President to prevent the attachment of blocked assets on a case-by-case basis, unless the property “has been used by the United States for any nondiplomatic purpose.” Id. § 201(b)(2)(A) (emphasis added). As is clear from that provision, Congress plainly knew how to specify use by the United States when that was the use it regarded as relevant. And “where Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposefully in the disparate inclusion or exclusion.” Russello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16, 23 (1983) (internal quotation marks omitted).
A final problem with the court‘s reading is that it reduces Congress’ purpose to one of financial accounting, rather than to making assets available for the victims of terrorist attacks. That is the necessary consequence of focusing on how the United States uses the rent, rather than on how the tenant uses the property. In the court‘s view, rental property remains immune as long as the State Department applies the rent to maintenance expenses, but it becomes available for attachment if the Department returns the rent to the Treasury and uses appropriated funds to pay for maintenance. Even if Congress were concerned about how the Department keeps its books, it is hard to see why it would address this concern in a section entitled, “Satisfaction of Judgments from Blocked Assets of Terrorists.” TRIA § 201.
For these reasons, I conclude that former diplomatic property that a private tenant uses for nondiplomatic purposes is not immune from attachment under TRIA § 201(d) as property
But this conclusion does not end the analysis. The remaining question is whether the property at issue here “is being” used exclusively for diplomatic purposes. Although it is clear that some of the properties have been rented to private tenants and have been used by those tenants for nondiplomatic purposes, there is no record evidence that any property is being used for such purposes. The difference in tense is dispositive.
In protecting from attachment property that ”is being used exclusively for diplomatic or consular purposes,” Congress expressly employed the present tense. TRIA § 201(d)(2)(B)(ii) (emphasis added). Where “Congress could have phrased its requirement in language that looked to the past . . . but . . . did not choose this readily available option,” the “most natural reading” is to construe the statute in the present (or present and future) tense. Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Found. Inc., 484 U.S. 49, 57 (1987); see Carr v. United States, 130 S. Ct. 2229, 2236 (2010) (“By implication, . . . the Dictionary Act instructs that the present tense generally does not include the past.” (referring to
In this case, the requirement that the property “is being used exclusively for diplomatic or consular purposes” is satisfied by the district court‘s indication that, at the time the writs were issued, all of the properties were vacant and being held by the United States pursuant to its obligations under the Vienna Convention. See Bennett v. Islamic Republic of Iran, No. 03-1486, Mem. Op. at 21 (D.D.C. Mar. 31, 2009). Accordingly, I concur in my colleagues’ decision to affirm the quashing of the writs.