Drummond Wins Dismissal of Suit Over Colombia Murders

Drummond Co., accused in a lawsuit of paying right-wing militiamen in Colombia to protect its coal shipments, won dismissal of the case following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a law often used in foreign human-rights claims.

U.S. District Judge David Proctor in Birmingham, Alabama, granted Drummond’s request to throw out the case on July 25, saying that the law on which the plaintiffs based the suit, the Alien Tort Statute, was no longer suitable. The Supreme Court in April limited the reach of the law.