A judge on Friday dismissed a wrongful-death lawsuit against two brothers from the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba that was filed by the parents of an American teenager who vanished during a vacation there.
The parents of Natalee Holloway cannot sue in Los Angeles because the case has no California connection and the courts lack jurisdiction over the brothers, Superior Court Judge Charles C. Lee said.
The teen's parents, Elizabeth Ann Twitty of Alabama and Dave E. Holloway of Mississippi, will decide whether to appeal, said their attorney, John Q. Kelly.
"There are all kinds of promising issues," Kelly said after the ruling.
A similar lawsuit filed in a New York court against another Aruba man, Joran van der Sloot, was dismissed last summer.
Natalee Holloway, 18, of Alabama was vacationing with friends on the Caribbean island resort when she disappeared the night of May 30, 2005. She was never found.
She was last seen getting into a car with Deepak and Satish Kalpoe and van der Sloot. They were arrested in connection with the disappearance but were later released.
The three have maintained that they were not involved in her disappearance and also have denied rumors and allegations they had sex with her.
In December, the brothers filed a defamation and fraud suit in a California court against TV psychologist "Dr. Phil" McGraw, an investigator and CBS Television Distribution Group.
The suit contends that the "Dr. Phil" talk show altered portions of a secretly recorded conversation between Deepak Kalpoe and a private investigator to "create false, incriminating, and defamatory statements that the plaintiffs engaged in criminal activity against Natalee Holloway."
That case is pending.
Holloway's parents sued in the same California court a day after the brothers filed their legal action.
A lawyer for the Kalpoes said he was pleased that the parents' suit was dismissed.
"It was what we anticipated," William Cremer said. "The only reason it was filed was to detract attention from the 'Dr. Phil' case."
The parents could file a wrongful-death suit against the Kalpoes in Aruba, but "they don't have a shred of evidence against them," he said.