Fallahi v. Raisolsadati
- Jesse Furman
- 1:22-cv-07013
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Fallahi v. Raisolsadati, Judge Furman denied substitute service because diplomatic-immunity rules protected Raisi from legal process during his United Nations visit.
The ruling affected Reza Fallahi and the other plaintiffs by preventing them from using the proposed substitute-service method during Raisi’s visit, and it protected Sayyid Ebrahim Raisolsadati from service of legal process during that visit. It did not resolve the underlying claims.
What happened
In Fallahi v. Raisolsadati, the plaintiffs sought permission to serve Sayyid Ebrahim Raisolsadati, also known as Ebrahim Raisi, through a member of his security detail while he was in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. The plaintiffs’ claims concerned alleged torture and killings in Iran in 1988.
The United States argued that Raisi was protected from service of legal papers by head-of-state immunity and international agreements governing United Nations representatives and diplomats. The court relied on a binding Second Circuit decision holding that those rules generally prevent service of legal process on people entitled to diplomatic immunity.
Judge Jesse M. Furman denied the plaintiffs’ motion for substitute service and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion. The court did not decide whether Raisi would ultimately be immune from the lawsuit or whether the plaintiffs’ claims could succeed.
The detailed version
- Fallahi v. Raisolsadati · No. 1:22-cv-07013
- Jesse Furman
- Sept. 20, 2022
Background
Reza Fallahi and other plaintiffs sued Sayyid Ebrahim Raisolsadati, also known as Ebrahim Raisi, under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victim Protection Act. They alleged that Raisi was responsible for their torture or for the torture and extrajudicial killings of relatives during a 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran.
The plaintiffs filed an ex parte motion asking for permission to use substitute service. Substitute service is a method of delivering legal papers other than directly to the defendant. They proposed delivering the summons, complaint, and related papers to a member of Raisi’s security detail while Raisi was in the Southern District of New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.
The court required the plaintiffs to serve their motion on the United States Attorney’s Office so that the federal government could provide its views. The government filed a Suggestion of Immunity, arguing that Raisi was immune from service of legal process during his anticipated visit. It relied on head-of-state immunity, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Court’s Analysis
The court held that the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and the Vienna Convention protected Raisi from service of legal process while he was in the United States for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. The court relied on Tachiona v. United States, in which the Second Circuit held that representatives of United Nations member states are protected by the Vienna Convention’s principle that diplomatic representatives are generally protected from service of process. The court also cited Brzak v. United Nations, which reaffirmed that current diplomatic envoys have broad immunity from civil legal process.
The plaintiffs asked the court not to follow Tachiona, pointing to a report that a Belgian court had prosecuted an accredited Iranian diplomat for an attempted bombing. The court concluded that this report did not justify disregarding a binding Second Circuit decision that directly addressed the issue.
The court acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations and expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs’ desire to have their claims heard. It nevertheless stated that it did not need to decide, and was not deciding, whether Raisi was protected from the lawsuit itself under head-of-state immunity or another doctrine. The court decided only that he was immune from service of process during the specified visit.
Disposition
The court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for substitute service. It directed the Clerk of Court to terminate ECF No. 7. The opinion did not decide whether Raisi would ultimately have to answer the plaintiffs’ claims.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.