Salimoff & Co. v. Standard Oil

The Soviet government confiscated Russian oil lands, including property Salimoff & Co. (Salimoff) (plaintiff) formerly owned, and sold the extracted oil to Standard Oil (defendant). Salimoff, a Russian national, sued in U.S. courts seeking a ruling that the Soviet government was an unrecognized regime whose confiscatory decrees were therefore invalid and unenforceable; the lower courts dismissed the case, and Salimoff appealed.