Permanent Mission of India v. City of New York
The City of New York sued the Permanent Mission of India in state court, seeking to enforce a tax lien against the Mission. The City claims that Mission, which is the diplomatic delegation of India to the United Nations, has used the building that it owns in a way that partly subjects it to city taxes. The Mission removed its case to federal court, and moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA), which generally makes foreign governments immune
from law suits. The district court denied the motion because the law suit fell into an exception of the FSIA involving "rights" in "immovable property."
The Second Circuit Court of Apeals affirmed, holding that the “immovable property” exception to foreign sovereign immunity
includes any case involving (1) the foreign country’s rights to or interest in immovable property situated in the United States; (2) the foreign country’s use or possession of such immovable property; or (3) the foreign country’s obligations arising directly
out of such rights to or use of the property. Accordingly, the immovable property exception provided jurisdiction over the matter because the dispute in the case involves the extent of the Mission's obligations (property taxes) under local law arising directly out of their ownership of real property in the United States.
Questions Presented:
1. Whether a suit to recover unpaid property taxes imposed on property owned by a foreign sovereign and to declare the validity of a tax lien arising out of those unpaid taxes falls within the immovable property exception to the general rule of immunity in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. sec. 1605(a)(4).
2. Whether the court of appeals erred in relying on two international agreements regarding foreign sovereign immunity to which the United States is not a party in the course of interpreting the FSIA.
