Jean-Baptiste Caire Claim


5 RIAA 516 (1929)


(French - Mexican Claims Commission)

DOCTRINE:

A state may be held internationally responsible for the unauthorised acts
of state

officials, such as the unlawful killing of a foreign national by an army or

police officer, where those officials purported to act in an official capacity
and “used the means placed at their di

sposition by

virtue of that capacity”

FACTS:

On 11 December 1914, M Jean-Baptiste Caire, a French national, who
was asked

to obtain a large sum of money by a Major in the Mexican Army. He was
unable to obtain a large sum of money and was subsequently arrested,
tortured and killed by soldiers.

France successfully pursed a claim against the Mexican government
that was heard by the French-Mexican Claims Commission which
concluded Mexico liable.

ISSUE:

Whether Mexico could be responsible for the actions of individual
military personnel who

were acting without orders and against the wishes of the commanding
officer and independently of the needs and aims of the revolution.

RATIO:

The perpetrators of the murder of MJB Caire were military personnel
occupying

occupying the ranks of “mayor” and “captain primero” aided by few
privates, it is found that the conditions of responsibility formulated above
are completely fulfilled. The officers in question whatever their previous
record, consistently conducted themselves as officers in the brigade of
the Villista General, Tomas Urbina, in this capacity they began by
exacting the remittance of certain sums of money; they continued by
having the victim taken into the barracks of the occupying troops; and it
was clearly because of the refusal of M. Caire to meet their repeated
demands that they finally shot him.

Under the circumstances, there remains no doubt that even if they are to
be regarded as having acted outside their competence, which is by no
means certain, and even if their superior officers issued a counter-order,
these two officers have involved the responsibility of the State, in view of
the fact that they have acted in their capacity of officers and used the
means placed at their disposition by virtue of that capacity.

RULING:

In accordance with the most authoritative doctrine supported by

numerous arbitral awards, the events of 11 Dec 1914, which led to the
death of MJB Caire,

fall within the category

of acts for which international responsibility devolves upon the State

to which the

perpetrators of the injury are amenable