## Facts

- Liberian children, through guardians, sued a U.S.-based company operating a large rubber plantation in Liberia through a subsidiary.
- Plaintiffs alleged they worked as child laborers on the plantation, performing difficult and dangerous tasks involving heavy loads, sharp tools, and chemicals.
- Firestone did not directly employ children; plaintiffs alleged the company set adult production quotas so high that parents relied on children to meet them.
- Plaintiffs sought relief under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), alleging use of hazardous child labor violated customary international law, citing international instruments addressing child labor and “worst forms” of child labor.
- The district court entered summary judgment for defendants; plaintiffs appealed only as to Firestone Natural Rubber Co., LLC.

## Issues

1. Whether a corporation (including an LLC) can be a defendant in an ATS action.
2. Whether the summary-judgment record created a triable issue that Firestone violated a specific, universal, and obligatory norm of customary international law by allegedly facilitating hazardous child labor.
3. Whether ATS plaintiffs must exhaust remedies in the country where the alleged conduct occurred before suing in U.S. federal court.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Firestone.
- The court held corporate status does not categorically bar ATS liability.
- The court held plaintiffs failed to present sufficient evidence that Firestone’s conduct violated a clearly defined, ATS-actionable norm of customary international law.
- The court rejected an exhaustion-of-local-remedies requirement for ATS claims (though that point did not change the outcome).

## Legal Principles

- The ATS permits federal jurisdiction for a narrow class of claims alleging violations of the law of nations; actionable norms must be “specific, universal, and obligatory.”
- International law supplies substantive norms, while domestic law generally governs civil-liability mechanisms; lack of corporate prosecution in some international tribunals does not itself preclude corporate civil liability under the ATS.
- Broad or indeterminate treaty provisions and general condemnations may be insufficient to establish a judicially enforceable customary international law norm for ATS purposes.
- At summary judgment, ATS plaintiffs must produce concrete evidence tying the defendant’s conduct to a defined customary norm; conclusory reliance on international instruments, without factual specificity about scope and conditions, is inadequate.
- The ATS does not impose a prerequisite that plaintiffs exhaust remedies in the foreign country where the alleged violations occurred.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit recognized that corporations may be sued under the ATS but affirmed summary judgment because the plaintiffs’ evidence did not show that the quota-driven use of children as family helpers on the plantation amounted to a violation of a sufficiently definite and universally accepted customary international law norm.


Flomo v. Firestone Nat. Rubber Co., 643 F.3d 1013 (7th Cir. 2011)