Posted on 02/16/2006 7:44:30 PM PST by LouAvul
NEW YORK (AP) - The parents of Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teen who went missing during a high school graduation class trip in Aruba last May, have sued a youth who was questioned in connection with her disappearance.
The lawsuit, filed late Thursday in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, seeks unspecified money damages against Joran van der Sloot, 18, and his father. Both were served with a summons while in New York, Holloway family lawyer Scott Balber said.
Holloway, 18, of Mountain Brook, Ala., was last seen May 30 leaving a bar with Surinamese brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, and van der Sloot, a Dutch national. The honors student was hours from ending her graduation trip.
The lawsuit was filed by Elizabeth Ann Twitty, of Alabama, and Dave Edward Holloway, of Mississippi, the missing teen's mother and father.
Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers were arrested June 9, 2005, on suspicion of involvement in Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot admitted he was with the teen but denied any wrongdoing. All were released, and nobody has been charged.
Referring to van der Sloot as "the predator," the lawsuit says that on at least three occasions young Aruban women have complained they were the victims of "date rape" by him and his accomplices.
Van der Sloot left Aruba, where his father still lives, and currently lives in Arnhem, the Netherlands, court papers say.
The lawsuit says the father, Paulus van der Sloot, was an enabler of his son's "violent and anti-social lifestyle." Court papers say that on the night of May 29, 2005, he went with his underage son to a casino to play poker. It was at that casino that the younger van der Sloot met Holloway, the lawsuit says.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
Actually, Joran was served in flight to NYC. Just saw the Holloway-Twitty lawyer on FOX.
This isn't getting anywhere.
How does a state court in New York have jurisdiction. The plaintiffs aren't from there. The decedent isn't from there, and neither of the defendants is from there. Some real due process issues here.
We should all know by now that liberal east-coast judges think they can decide on anything. They think that the World is their jurisdiction and we should all bow to their 'Omniscience'.
Last paragraph of the article.
Balber explained that if a defendant is served with a summons for a lawsuit in the state and neither party lives in the county where the summons is served, then the plaintiff gets to decide the county in which the lawsuit is filed.
If he's not a citizen of this country, and the crime happened in a different country - how can he be sued in our court system?
That speaks to where venue would lie in New York, but it still doesn't answer the jurisdictional quesiton. I haven't resarched NY law, but there are some fundamental constitutional due process issues involved.
Good point.
You are absolutely correct. Not only do none of the parties have any nexus to NY but none of acts which presumedly make up the lawsuit occured there either. Very serious jurisdictional issues here. I don't even see how a Federal Court would have jurisdiction.
For criminal jurisdiction it is different from civil jurisdiction.
Also if the respondent leaves the jurisdiction, the trial will proceed anyway. If he respondent does not defend the case, it goes to the complainant by default. They do not have to extridite for a civil trial.
The fifth amendment does not apply to civil matters. Only criminal matters.
If a respondent refuses to answer a question, the answer is deemed to be anything the complainant desires.
"If he's not a citizen of this country, and the crime happened in a different country - how can he be sued in our court system?
"
I agree with you.
That's so easy to say...When I was Natalie's age, I went to Europe with a teen group for the summer. The chaperone's truly didn't care what we did. Our curfew was 2 a.m! Can you imagine? We were 16 years old. When I think of the foolish things my girlfriend and I did I cringe. We're very lucky.
This case has all the legitimacy of that useless post-9/11 civil suit against Osama bin Laden or the Iraqi government, in which a ridiculous trial was carried out and a "default judgement" of 100 million-billion-trillion-gazillion dollars was awarded to the plaintiffs.
She was laying on a bar, mostly naked except for her Rio g-string, and 'the boys' were lapping up jello shots on her body. Some people just put themselves in a situation that has no positive outcome.
I saw on TV that they apparently served the son on the plane when it arrived in New York, but before he deplaned. (It didn't say anything about the father.) That would raise some interesting questions if it was an international flight that had not yet cleared customs. I think there are a few cases out there that if you get personal service in the jurisdiction, you can sue them there, so they may be able to make a case as to the son, but they are certainly testing the limits of 'minimum contacts'.
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