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Exxon Wants Rehearing In Corporate Liability Dispute [USA]
Lawyers for Exxon Mobil...have asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject a panel decision that exposed the oil giant to corporate liability for alleged atrocities in Indonesia. Exxon's lawyers, including Sri Srinivasan of O’Melveny & Myers, said in a petition...that the three-judge panel got it wrong when it found Exxon can be held liable under the Alien Tort Statute. The 2-1 panel decision “vastly expanded” the statute to find that corporations can be liable for violent acts committed abroad, Srinivasan said. Srinivasan, chair of O’Melveny’s appellate and Supreme Court practice, said the panel decision, if it is not overturned, “threatens to unleash a flood of litigation in U.S. court for actions lacking any salient connection to the United States.”...Two suits against Exxon in Washington federal district court merged into the single appellate case. The plaintiffs alleged Indonesian military, serving for Exxon to protect facilities there, tortured civilians in a village there over many years...A lawyer for the plaintiffs...was not immediately reached for comment.