A French court has overturned a ruling that ordered the state railway to compensate the family of World War II Jewish deportees.

Appeal judges in Bordeaux ruled administrative courts could not decide the liability of the operator SNCF.

Last June a court ruled SNCF must pay 61,000 euros ($81,300; £41,400) to the Lipietz family, whose members were taken to a camp near Paris in 1944.

SNCF had received 1,800 compensation requests since June's ruling.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6499227.stm

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This decision is based on proceedings issues (what kind of Court has jurisdiction over the matter), so we can expect this won't end the litigation.

The fact question is (apart from procedural matters ) can the state public rail company can directly be held for responsible or this responsability is only for the French State who controled the company at the time.

It's interesting because this question comes often when it's individuals defending themselves by saying they executed orders of their legitimate superiors (the theory of "smart bayonets"), but I don't recall such a debate about a public company.