Austria’s national railway prevails in case before U.S. Supreme Court
The decision has broad application and is significant in confirming that there are limits to the reach of American courts.
We represented OBB Personenverkehr AG, the national railway of the Republic of Austria, in all stages of this important litigation involving international law. The Supreme Court unanimously held that OBB is entitled to sovereign immunity in a lawsuit filed against it in federal court by a U.S. resident who was injured while boarding OBB’s train in Innsbruck, Austria. The Supreme Court rejected the notion that a foreign state-owned railway could be sued in the United States, simply based on the purchase of a Eurail pass on the Internet from a U.S. travel agency.