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Extracted Text (OCR)
IN RE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
817
Cite as 349 F.Supp.2d_ 765 (S.D.N.Y. 2005)
goods and services to large portions of
Saudi Arabia. Jd. 94. In the past ten
years he visited the United States three
times for medical reasons. Jd. 115-6.
Prior to these medical visits, he took a
short trip to New York City in 1964. 7d.
17. He owned no property, held no bank
accounts, and conducted no business in
this country. Jd. 110.
Mr. Aljomaih’s estate argues that there
were problems with his service. He was
served pursuant to Judge Robertson’s
March 25, 2003 approving service by publi-
cation. Under that order, Plaintiffs pub-
lished a list of defendants in two publica-
tions, The International Herald Tribune
and Al Quds Al Arabia. The notice in The
International Herald Tribune contained
Mr. Aljomaih’s name in English, a lan-
guage he could not read. 7d. 111. Al
Quds Al Arabi is published in Arabic, but
is not circulated in Saudi Arabia and the
list did not include Mr. Aljomaih’s name.
Even if service was proper, however, the
estate of Mr. Aljomaih claims the Court
does not have personal jurisdiction over it.
Plaintiffs submit that Mr. Aljomaih is
implicated by the “Golden Chain.” Plain-
tiffs’ Opp. at 9. The “Golden Chain” is a
eroup of documents that was discovered
by Bosnian authorities searching the of-
fices of charity Defendant BIF in March
2002. Plaintiffs claim the “Golden Chain”
contains a list of early direct donors to al
Qaeda. Plaintiffs’ Opp. at 9; see also Bi-
erstein Aff. in Opp. to Al-Husani Motion
to Dismiss, Ex. 2 (“Golden Chain” docu-
ment). It includes the entry “Al-Jumaih.
Jeddah (8.A.).” Plaintiffs do not dispute
that “for more than sixty years [Mr. Aljo-
maih] lived in Rihadh,” not Jeddah, Aljo-
maih Decl. 13, yet they insist the docu-
ment identifies him as a direct donor to al
Qaeda. Additionally, Plaintiffs claim that
My. Aljomaih’s company donated money to
charity Defendant IIRO. Plaintiffs assert
there are sufficient allegations against Mr.
Aljomaih in the form of general allegations
against all Defendants to put him on notice
of the claims against him. They claim that
jurisdiction over Mr. Aljomaih’s estate is
proper because he “purposefully directed”
his activities at the United States by sup-
porting al Qaeda. Plaintiffs also submit
that Mr. Aljomaih’s company does busi-
ness with General Motors and Shell Corpo-
ration and that, therefore, he must have
had contacts with the United States. See
Opp. at 11; Statement of Jamie L. Paye
attached to Plaintiffs’ Opp.
[63] The Court finds the Plaintiffs
have not established a prima facie case of
jurisdiction over Mr. Aljomaih to defeat
his motion or warrant jurisdictional discov-
ery. Their theory of jurisdiction rests al-
most entirely on a document with serious
foundational flaws. Even assuming, as the
Court must, that the “Golden Chain” re-
fers to Mr. Aljomaih, with no indication of
who wrote the list, when it was written, or
for what purpose, the Court cannot make
the logical leap that the document is a list
of early al Qaeda supporters. Mr. Aljo-
maih’s motion to dismiss the Burnett com-
plaint for lack of personal jurisdiction is
accordingly granted.
5. Sheikh Hamad Al—Husani
The posture of the Burnett Plaintiffs’
case against Sheikh Hamad Al-Husani is
similar to that against Mr. Aljomaih. Mr.
Al-Husani was also added to a list of
defendants to be served by publication and
the complaint contains no specific allega-
tions against him. Al-Husani Decl. 110.
He is a watch retailer residing in Saudi
Arabia. Jd. 19134, 7. Mr. Al-Husani has
never visited the United States, owns no
real property here, holds no bank accounts
or investments in the United States, and
does not engage in transactions with any
businesses in the United States. Id. 113,
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Extracted Information
Document Details
| Filename | HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017882.jpg |
| File Size | 0.0 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 85.0% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 3,818 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-04T16:33:20.278286 |