Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Nestle, Cargill in Human Rights Lawsuit
District of Columbia | June 21, 2021
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Nestle USA and Cargill could not be sued for alleged human rights abuses that occurred overseas.
The plaintiffs, six Mali citizens enslaved as children on Ivory Coast cocoa farms supplying the food giants, sued Nestle and Cargill for damages, alleging the companies had aided and profited from child labor. The court ruled the corporations could not be sued for the overseas abuses.
“Nearly all the conduct they allege aided and abetted forced labor—providing training, equipment, and cash to overseas farmers—occurred in the Ivory Coast,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion.
“Pleading general corporate activity, like ‘mere corporate presence’, does not draw a sufficient connection between the cause of action respondents seek and domestic conduct,” Thomas said…
(Excerpts from the Tennessee Star)