Ratha v. Rubicon Resources, LLC, 168 F.4th 541 (9th Cir. 2026) (en banc)
Plaintiffs are villagers from rural Cambodia who allegedly were forced to work at seafood factories in Thailand and who alleged that Rubicon marketed in the United States seafood products from those factories, thus participating in a venture that benefited from human trafficking. The district court had previously granted summary judgment to Rubicon on the ground that it had only “attempted to benefit” from plaintiffs’ allegedly forced labor. However, Congress subsequently passed the Abolish Trafficking Reauthorization Act of 2022 (ATRA), which made defendants civilly liable when they attempt to benefit, but do not succeed in benefitting, from human trafficking. The district court then denied plaintiffs’ motion for relief from the summary judgment pursuant to FRCP 60(b)(6) on the ground that Congress did not intend for ATRA attempt liability to apply retroactively. In this en banc decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court for having abused its discretion in determining ATRA did not have retroactive effect.
