California Supreme Court to Review Slave Labor Law

"The California Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to review the validity of a state law allowing people to sue companies that forced them into slave labor during World War II.

"The justices, without comment, decided at its weekly private conference here to examine a January decision by a Los Angeles appeals court allowing a Korean-American man to sue the former Onoda Cement Co. and its successor, Taiheiyo Cement Corp. of Japan, which has a Los Angeles-based subsidiary. Jae Wan Jeong is seeking back wages, unspecified damages, an apology and establishment of a trust fund to benefit victims of forced labor.

"At issue is a 1999 California law allowing people claiming to be wartime forced-labor victims in Europe and Asia to seek redress until 2010 against multinational firms that operate in the state," the San Jose Mercury News reports here. I linked to the California State appellate decision earlier here, and to the Ninth Circuit's subsequent decision in a related case here.