Republic of Austria v. Altmann
| Republic of Austria v. Altmann | |
|---|---|
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| Argued February 24, 2004 Decided June 7, 2004 |
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| Full case name | Republic of Austria et al. v. Altmann |
| Citations | 541 U.S. 677 (more) |
| Holding | |
| The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act applies retroactively. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Stevens, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer |
| Concurrence | Scalia |
| Concurrence | Breyer, joined by Souter |
| Dissent | Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, Thomas |
Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U.S. 677 (2004), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA, applies retroactively. It is one of the most recent cases that deals with the "anti-retroactivity doctrine", which is a doctrine that holds that courts should not construe a statute to apply retroactively (to apply to situations that arose before it was enacted) unless there is a clear statutory intent that it should do so. This means that, regarding lawsuits filed after its enactment, the FSIA standards of sovereign immunity and its exceptions apply even to conduct that took place before 1976.
The result of this case for the plaintiff, Maria Altmann, was that she was authorized to proceed with a civil action against Austria in a U.S. federal district court for recovery of five paintings stolen by the Nazis from her relatives and then housed in a government museum. As the Supreme Court noted in its decision, Altmann had already tried suing the museum before in Austria, but was forced to voluntarily dismiss her case because of Austria's rule that court costs are proportional to the amount in controversy (in this case, the enormous monetary value of the paintings). Under Austrian law, the filing fee for such a lawsuit is determined as a percentage of the recoverable amount. At the time, the five paintings were estimated to be worth approximately US$135 million, making the filing fee over US$1.5 million. Although the Austrian courts later reduced this amount to $350,000, this was still too much for Altmann, and she dropped her case in the Austrian court system. Justice Stephen Breyer, in his concurring opinion, emphasized that the Court was dealing purely with the FSIA retroactivity issue and not with "any legal determination about the merits of Austrian legal procedures."
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