Lawyers for Daimler AG (DCAG) will have to defend their company in U.S. court over allegations that the auto manufacturer’s subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz, helped the military junta in Argentina do away with political dissidents four decades ago.

 

Twenty-two plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2004 claiming Mercedes-Benz’s Argentine operation collaborated with state security forces in causing the detention, kidnapping, torture or death of workers at the González-Catan plant near Buenos Aires. Mercedes-Benz officials are accused of allowing military and police forces to be stationed at the plant and of fingering workers they considered “subversives” and “agitators.”

 

The case hit a roadblock in 2007 when a federal district judge ruled he lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case, saying the matter should be taken up in Germany or Argentina. The plaintiffs appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which reversed the lower court decision and sent the case back to San Jose for hearing.

 

Writing for the Court, Judge Stephen Reinhardt explained: “To the ordinary American, and certainly to us, it would seem odd, indeed, if the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, which are sold in California in vast numbers by its American subsidiary, for use on the state’s streets and highways, could not be required to appear in the federal courts of that state. Mercedes-Benz cars are ubiquitous in California, and Mercedes-Benz dealerships, required to display the signage mandated by DCAG, have a highly visible presence.” He added that 50% of Daimler’s revenue comes from the United States and 2.4% its sales are made in California alone.

 

It is estimated that as many as 30,000 people were killed in Argentina from 1976 to 1983 in a state-sponsored crackdown on leftist dissent committed by the military, which ousted President Isabel Perón.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Daimler Must Face Argentina Abuse Lawsuit in US (by Jonathan Stempel, Reuters)

California Trial Awaits Mercedes for Dirty War (by Barbara Leonard, Courthouse News Service)

House Refuses to Declassify 28-Year-Old Files on Argentina Dictatorship (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Barbara Bauman et al. v. DaimlerChrysler 2010 (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) (pdf)

Barbara Bauman et al. v. DaimlerChrysler 2009 (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals) (pdf)