Cicippio-Puleo v. Islamic Republic of Iran

In 2001, Cicippio's children brought an additional suit against Iran, seeking punitive damages for emotional distress and loss of solatium during the hostage period of Cicippio under FSIA and the Flatow Amendment. Cicippio sought to consolidate his children's to his completed case, and subsequently seek summary judgement based on the prior ruling. In 2002 the United States District Court for the District of Columbia denied the motion for summary judgement, as well as consolidation, but further also dismissed the children's case as lacking standing, in that FSIA nor the Flatow Amendment does not create a private cause of action for cases of punitive damages.

Cicippio's children appealed to the DC Circuit Court, which in 2004 upheld the District Court's ruling. In the 3-0 ruling written by Judge Harry T. Edwards, the court found that the Flatow Amendment "merely waives the immunity of a foreign state without creating a cause of action against it, and the Flatow Amendment only provides a private right of action against officials, employees, and agents of a foreign state, not against the foreign state itself".^[3] Further, the decision, though upholding the Flatow Amendment as the right direction for victims of terrorism to gain compensation, stated "it is for Congress, not the courts, to decide whether a cause of action should lie against foreign states."^[4]

With numerous cases related to FSIA in the courts at the time, the DC Circuit's decision in Cicippio-Puleo filtered into other Circuit courts with civil FSIA cases that has been filed on wake of the Flatow Amendment. The other Circuit Courts adopted the DC Circuit's rational from Cicippio-Puleo, making it difficult for several of these cases to go forward.^[4]

Congress took action to remedy this in passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, passed in January 2008, which among its budgetary features, specifically enhanced the terrorism exemptions of FSIA, addressing the ability for private cause of action cases to be taken against foreign countries that supported state-sponsored terrorism, and made such changes apply retroactive to any ongoing lawsuit that had been adversely affected by the decision of Cicippio-Puleo.^[4]