United States Eleventh Circuit

In a civil action brought under the Torture Victim Protection Act, showing the defendant's actual ability to control the guilty troops is part of the plaintiff's burden under the superior-subordinate prong of the command responsibility doctrine, whether the plaintiff attempts to assert liability under a theory of de facto or de jure authority; here, it was not plain error for the district court's instruction to include elements required under command responsibility doctrine, as no authority exists to shift the burden of proof.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/30/2002
• Published 04/30/2002

Judges

• KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge:, Before CARNES, BARKETT and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Peter Charles Choharis, Mayer, Brown & Platt, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Kurt R. Klaus, Jr., Miami, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.