The plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against the Marcos estate in 1986, the year he was deposed after ruling for 20 years. Marcos and his family fled to Hawai'i, where he died in exile in 1989.

In 1995, using a two-century-old U.S. law, a Honolulu jury awarded plaintiffs $2 billion after finding Marcos responsible for summary executions, disappearances and torture.

The plaintiffs have not collected from that judgment, which is nearing $4 billion with interest, and have been awarded a combined $40 million from Marcos assets found in a New York bank. That award is on appeal.

The $683 million represented the largest amount available to the plaintiffs.

Ferdinand Marcos

Swift and others argued that the $683 million transferred from the Swiss account to the Philippine National Bank should have been awarded to their clients.

The Philippine government said the money was part of the national treasury, a decision the country's highest court agreed with in 2003 when it ordered the national bank to forward the money to the government.

Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that American courts have no legal right to overturn a foreign country's supreme court — despite the plaintiffs' 1995 jury award in Honolulu.

In this case, the decision applies to the Philippine Supreme Court's order that the funds be forwarded to the national treasury.

The San Francisco appeals court has jurisdiction for Hawai'i and eight other western states.

Jay Ziegler, an attorney for Philippine National Bank, said the institution was gratified by the decision.

"We think it is the correct result in this case," Ziegler said. "The Philippine Supreme Court in 2003 ordered the funds forfeited to the government, and the bank complied with the Supreme Court."

A U.S. judge in Hawai'i ruled last year that the 2003 decision by the Philippine Supreme Court "was entitled to no deference."