Court ends US battle for apartheid victims

A US Appeals Court has in all probability ended a 13-year battle in the US courts for victims seeking compensation from companies and banks they claimed aided the apartheid-era government. A three-judge panel in New York ruled yesterday the group of South African victims had failed to show a connection between the crimes and the companies’ actions in the US to let an American court handle the lawsuit, according to a report on the Moneyweb site. The ruling upholds a 2014 decision by US District Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan dismissing the complaint against Ford and IBM. Scheindlin relied on a ruling by the US Supreme Court that limited the scope of the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, previously used to pursue lawsuits in the US against companies abroad.