By ALAN FEUER
Published: October 13, 2007
A divided federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a human rights lawsuit filed against 50 major corporations that did business in South Africa under apartheid should be revived and reconsidered by the lower court that dismissed it.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated the suit, which was filed in 2002 by three separate groups of plaintiffs in eight federal courts across the country. They argued that the corporations, most of which are American, violated international law by aiding and abetting the apartheid system in South Africa.
The plaintiffs sued the corporations — among them Citigroup, General Electric, E. I. DuPont de Nemours, I.B.M., General Motors, Shell Oil and ExxonMobil — under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which was passed in 1789 to protect American ships and diplomats from attack when they were overseas. In 2004, Judge John E. Sprizzo of Federal District Court in Manhattan dismissed the case, saying that his court did not have jurisdiction to consider the suit.
In his ruling to dismiss, Judge Sprizzo wrote that the courts must be “extremely cautious in permitting suits here based upon a corporation’s doing business in countries with less than stellar human rights records.” He warned that such suits could have “significant, if not disastrous, effects” on trade.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court reversed that decision, saying that Judge Sprizzo did have jurisdiction and returning the case for reconsideration.
“The majority allows three class actions on behalf of all persons who lived in South Africa between 1948 and the present and who suffered damages as a result of apartheid to go forward in a United States court against American, Canadian and European corporations that sold goods and materials or made loans to the Union of South Africa during the apartheid era,” one of the appellate judges, Edward R. Korman, wrote.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
