A federal judge in Virginia, USA has dismissed a lawsuit seeking $282.5 million in damages from Sudan for allegedly supporting terrorists in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000.

U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar in Norfolk ruled on Monday that the plaintiffs cannot file a new lawsuit as a previous one related to the same terrorist incident already received a ruling in 2007.

In the first lawsuit, Doumar ruled that 59 plaintiffs were entitled to receive $8 million in compensation for the lost wages and earnings of 17 American sailors who died in the attack of the ship in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000. Relatives of the victims were paid the compensation out of frozen Sudan assets in the U.S.

One of the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, Thomas Wibberley of Boonsboro, said they can also seek damages from Sudan over the death of his son in the attack based on the Justice for Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act. That law passed by Congress in 2008 allowed parents, spouses or children of those killed in the attack to seek retroactive punitive damages for emotional sufferings.

However, Doumar ruled that Congress exceeded its authority by allowing families of victims to file new claims.