Bartlett v. Societe Generale de Banque au Liban SAL

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMay 23, 2024
Docket1:19-cv-00007
StatusUnknown

This text of Bartlett v. Societe Generale de Banque au Liban SAL (Bartlett v. Societe Generale de Banque au Liban SAL) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bartlett v. Societe Generale de Banque au Liban SAL, (E.D.N.Y. 2024).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

--------------------------------------------------------X

ROBERT BARTLETT, et al.,

Plaintiffs,

-against- MEMORANDUM AND ORDER 19-CV-7 (CBA) (TAM) SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE DE BANQUE AU LIBAN SAL, et al.,

Defendants.

TARYN A. MERKL, United States Magistrate Judge: Plaintiffs are a group of over 1,200 American nationals, or their surviving family members, who were injured or killed in terrorist attacks that they allege were perpetrated abroad by Hezbollah. (See Third Am. Compl. (“TAC”), ECF No. 362 (publicly filed, redacted version).) Plaintiffs allege that thirteen banking institutions (Société Générale de Banque au Liban SAL (“SGBL”), Fransabank SAL, Middle East Africa Bank SAL (“MEAB”), BLOM Bank SAL, Byblos Bank SAL, Bank Audi SAL, Bank of Beirut SAL, Lebanon and Gulf Bank SAL (“LGB”), Banque Libano-Française SAL, Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries SAL, Jammal Trust Bank SAL, Fenicia Bank, and Lebanese Canadian Bank SAL (“LCB”)) committed, inter alia, violations of the Anti- Terrorism Act (“ATA”), 18 U.S.C. § 2333, as amended by the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (“JASTA”), Pub. L. No. 114-222, 130 Stat. 852 (2016). (See TAC, ECF No. 362.) On November 7, 2023, Plaintiffs filed a motion for leave to file the TAC under seal, seeking to seal information obtained in discovery that was designated as confidential under the protective order that governs this case. (See Mot. for Leave to File Under Seal, ECF No. 359; Proposed Redacted TAC (sealed), ECF No. 360; see generally Protective Order, ECF No. 273.) A redacted version of the TAC was filed publicly the same day. (See TAC, ECF No. 362.) For the reasons set forth herein, the requests to seal are granted in part and denied in part, without prejudice. PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND1 Plaintiffs bring the instant action under the ATA and JASTA against Defendants,

which are Lebanese commercial banks that Plaintiffs allege “knowingly provid[ed] pervasive and sustained material support, including financial services, to Hezbollah and its companies, social welfare organizations, operatives, and facilitators.” (TAC, ECF No. 362, ¶¶ 1, 5.) Hezbollah has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. Department of State since 1997. (Id. ¶ 1, n.1.) The complaint has already been amended twice, and Defendants have moved to dismiss the first and second amended

1 This opinion assumes familiarity with the facts and procedural history of this case. Of particular relevance here, on November 7, 2023, eleven of the named Defendants, including SGBL, Fransabank SAL, MEAB, BLOM Bank SAL, Byblos Bank SAL, Bank Audi SAL, Bank of Beirut SAL, LGB, Banque Libano Française SAL, Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries SAL, and Fenicia Bank SAL, filed a letter in support of sealing. (Defs.’ Ltr., ECF No. 363 (citing, inter alia, S.E.C. v. Ripple Labs, Inc., No. 20-CV-10832 (AT), 2023 WL 3477552 (S.D.N.Y. May 16, 2023)).) Non-party Standard Chartered Bank (“SCB”) also filed a response to Plaintiffs’ motion to seal, indicating that it supports Plaintiffs’ request to file under seal those portions of the TAC that incorporated “Protected Information” as designated under the confidentiality order in this case. (See SCB Ltr., ECF No. 364.) As to the remaining two Defendants, Defendant LCB has not appeared in this action; it was declared by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as “a financial institution of primary money laundering concern” in February of 2011 and was then acquired by Defendant SGBL. (See Certificate of Default, ECF No. 203; TAC, ECF No. 362, ¶¶ 102–04.) Defendant Jammal Trust Bank SAL has been exempted from discovery due to its interlocutory appeal regarding foreign sovereign immunity. See Bartlett v. Baasiri, 81 F.4th 28, 37 (2d Cir. 2023) (finding that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act “may attach when a defendant becomes an instrumentality of a foreign sovereign after a suit is filed” and remanding for further fact finding on that issue). (See Oct. 8, 2021 ECF Min. Entry & Order (exempting Jammal Trust Bank and Dr. Muhammed Baasiri from discovery).) complaints; Judge Amon later ruled on both, denying the motion to dismiss the first amended complaint in part and granting in part, and denying the motion to dismiss the second amended complaint. (See Compl., ECF No. 1; First Am. Compl., ECF No. 105 (“FAC” or “Am. Compl.”); Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”), ECF No. 189; June 17, 2022 Mem. and Order, ECF No. 291 (unpublished) (denying motion to dismiss the SAC).) See Bartlett v. Société Générale De Banque Au Liban SAL, No. 19-CV-7 (CBA) (VMS), 2020 WL 7089448, at *1 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 25, 2020), ECF No. 164 (denying Defendants’ motion to dismiss the FAC in part, granting in part).

As Judge Amon previously observed in denying the motion to dismiss the first amended complaint: Here, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants knowingly provided Hezbollah with wide-ranging financial services — including maintenance of accounts, accepting donations from abroad, and processing wire transfers — that were integral to financing Hezbollah’s terroristic attacks. That conduct differs from the “mere” provision of material support. Plaintiffs have not alleged an isolated provision of financial services to Hezbollah. Rather, they allege a wide-ranging, years-long, knowing scheme of coordination in which Defendants acted as Hezbollah’s core financial service-providers. Plaintiffs allege that despite Hezbollah’s purportedly multifaceted nature, it remains singularly dedicated to religiously inspired terrorist attacks, (Am. Compl. ¶ 354); any suggestion that Hezbollah’s core bankers would be unaware of their role in those attacks by providing it banking services necessary to funding those attacks is highly dubious.

Bartlett, 2020 WL 7089448, at *11. While the motion to dismiss the SAC was under consideration, on October 8, 2021, the Court held a conference and determined that discovery would commence. (Oct. 8, 2021 ECF Min. Entry & Order (concluding that discovery shall commence and directing the parties to meet and confer at an initial Rule 26(f) conference); see also Dec. 13, 2021 ECF Min. Entry & Order (setting dates for specific discovery steps).) On June 8, 2022, the Court entered the parties’ stipulated protective order, which limits how discovery information that is marked confidential may be used.2 In entering the order, the Court expressly ordered as follows: The Court is in receipt of the parties’ Proposed Protective Order [272]. The parties’ joint request to approve their stipulated protective order is granted. However, to the extent that any portion of the protective order, including Sections E(7) and I(4), is inconsistent with this Court’s procedures for sealing or limiting the distribution of documents or the standards governing the ability of this Court to permit the sealing or distribution of documents, the Court’s practices and standards shall be followed by the parties and will govern any dispute. See Cumberland Packing Corp. v. Monsanto Co., 184 F.R.D. 504 (E.D.N.Y. 1999) (denying request for a protective order that would have required sealing of materials marked confidential by the parties). The parties are respectfully directed that, to the extent they seek to file a document or attachments with the Court under seal, they may file an appropriate application for sealing on ECF, citing any authority on which they rely in support of their application. See Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110 (2d Cir. 2006).

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Bartlett v. Societe Generale de Banque au Liban SAL, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bartlett-v-societe-generale-de-banque-au-liban-sal-nyed-2024.