Just as sovereign states enjoy immunity through the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, so do certain international organizations of which the United States is a member. Under the International Organizations Immunity Act, codified in 22 U.S.C. §288, immunity and privileges are provided to public international organizations in which the U.S. participates under a treaty or an Act of Congress. In addition to other exceptions to the FSIA, if a sovereign state expressly waives its immunity in contracts or other in another manner, a district court can establish jurisdiction. An international organization's waiver of immunity would also warrant jurisdiction in a U.S. court.
Relying upon this exception, the plaintiff in Nyambal v. International Monetary Fundfiled suit against the IMF for assault and false imprisonment after an incident at the IMF's Bank-Fund Staff Credit Union. The plaintiff had been recently terminated after alleging corruption within the IMF.
In its decision of November 25, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed the district court's granting of jurisdictional discovery. The granting of discovery against an immune defendant allowed the Court collateral review of the case. Despite the plaintiff’s request for the Court to revisit and narrow the scope of the IOIA immunity in Atkinson v. Inter-American Development Bank, the Court refused, citing Atkinson's explicit ruling that international organizations share the same immunity as foreign sovereigns, unless it is waived.
In its amended complaint, the plaintiff relied upon a subclause of the IMF's Articles of Agreement with the Credit Union, claiming that it purportedly waived the IMF's immunity. The Court begged to differ, noting that discovery in a case with an immune party can be called only when specific facts require verification; the IMF's discovery production of the Articles of Agreement demonstrated the explicit non-waiver of immunity -- and the inapplicability of the subclause.
The Court also rejected the plaintiff's alternative argument that the contract between the IMF and its Credit Union created a framework for the IMF to waive its immunity. Just as with the FSIA, an examination of IMF's immunity must not only demonstrate an explicit and express waiver, but the plaintiff must allege specific facts as to the waiver of immunity -- none of which were fulfilled in this case.
