Woman's suit against Austrian railway tossed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a woman who wanted to use American courts to sue the state-owned Austrian railway for grievous injuries she suffered while boarding a train in Innsbruck, Austria.

In their first decision of the term, the nine justices ruled last week that Carol Sachs’ lawsuit could not go forward in U.S. courts.

The railroad company OBB-Personenverkehr AG appealed to the Supreme Court after federal appellate judges in San Francisco said the suit could proceed because Sachs purchased her train ticket from a Massachusetts-based Internet site.

But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that all of Sachs’ claims “turn on the same tragic episode in Austria” in which her legs were crushed.