## Facts

- Former child laborers from Mali (John Does I–VI) alleged they were trafficked into Côte d’Ivoire and forced to work on cocoa farms for long hours without pay.
- They sued Nestlé USA, Inc. and Cargill, Inc. (U.S. corporations), alleging the companies aided and abetted child slavery in the Ivorian cocoa supply chain.
- The claims were brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), asserting violations of customary international law prohibiting slavery and forced labor.
- Plaintiffs alleged the companies knowingly provided financial, technical, and logistical support to farms using child slave labor, including training and resources and maintaining commercial relationships with the farms.
- The district court dismissed, including on the ground that the claims were impermissibly extraterritorial under the ATS.
- On appeal, the Ninth Circuit considered whether alleged U.S.-based conduct connected to the asserted international-law violations was sufficient at the pleading stage to permit an ATS claim.

## Issues

1. Whether aiding-and-abetting liability for slavery/forced labor is cognizable under the ATS.
2. Whether allegations of U.S.-based conduct by domestic corporations can satisfy the ATS’s limits on extraterritorial application when the forced labor occurred abroad.
3. Whether plaintiffs should be allowed to amend to plead with greater specificity how domestic conduct is attributable to the U.S. corporate defendants.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s extraterritoriality dismissal of the ATS aiding-and-abetting claims and remanded.
- The court held that aiding-and-abetting claims may fall within the ATS’s focus on torts committed in violation of the law of nations.
- The court concluded that plaintiffs alleged a narrow set of specific domestic conduct (beyond mere corporate presence) that, if properly attributable to the domestic corporations, could support a domestic application of the ATS at the pleading stage.
- The court directed that plaintiffs be given an opportunity to amend to specify whether the alleged U.S.-based aiding-and-abetting conduct was attributable to the domestic corporate defendants.
- After certiorari, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that allegations of U.S. “general corporate activity” were insufficient to overcome the presumption against extraterritoriality and remanded for further proceedings consistent with that rule.

## Legal Principles

- The ATS is subject to a presumption against extraterritorial application; plaintiffs must plead domestic conduct tied to the alleged international-law violation sufficient to treat the case as a domestic application of the statute.
- Under the Ninth Circuit’s approach, aiding and abetting can fall within the ATS’s focus where the alleged assistance is connected to a universally recognized international-law norm such as slavery.
- Allegations limited to high-level corporate decisionmaking and oversight in the United States are insufficient, standing alone, to displace the presumption against extraterritoriality; plaintiffs must allege more domestic conduct than general corporate activity.
- The Supreme Court resolved the litigation on extraterritoriality grounds and did not definitively decide whether corporations are categorically subject to ATS liability.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit permitted ATS aiding-and-abetting claims based on alleged U.S.-connected assistance to overseas forced labor to proceed past dismissal and allowed amendment to better tie domestic conduct to the defendants, but the Supreme Court later reversed, holding that general U.S.-based corporate activity does not suffice to make an ATS claim domestic when the alleged forced labor occurred abroad.


Doe I v. Nestle USA, Inc., 906 F.3d 1120 (9th Cir. 2018)