Legal News

With 2d Circuit Decision, Holocaust Case Moves Closer to Resolution

By Dan Slater

A long-running dispute over insurance money allegedly owed to Holocaust survivors took another step toward resolution this week when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals approved a settlement between thousands of plaintiffs and insurer Assicurazioni Generali. Click here for the order.

With the settlement, Generali has now paid out roughly $135 million covering some 5,500 claims. As part of the settlement, in which the company acknowledges no wrongdoing, survivors and relatives will be given additional time to look for evidence to support their insurance claims in long-sealed Holocaust-era archives in Germany. Generali, which is represented by Skadden Arps’ Marco Schnabl, will continue evaluating claims until the settlement becomes final, which, according to Schnabl, will be at the end of the period allowed for plaintiffs who opt out to appeal to the Supreme Court.

“We feel that this a terrific settlement,” Nancy Sher Cohen, a Heller Ehrman partner, told the Law Blog. “As every day passes, we’re losing another Holocaust survivor. So we think that getting money to these people as quickly as possible is the most important thing we can do here. The process shouldn’t be held up by these appeals, which don’t have merit.” Heller partners John Ulin and Rene Siemens also represented the plaintiff class.

Miami lawyer Sam Dubbin, who challenged the settlement on behalf of other survivors, says that plaintiffs were mislead into accepting a process — the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims — that he says was stacked in the favor of the company.

“In response to the argument that it’s necessary for other people to get paid, Generali has evidently said they’re going to continue to pay policies no matter what,” Dubbin told the Law Blog. “So my clients think it’s hypocritical of them to tell Congress they’ll pay no matter what, but then in settlement say they won’t settle unless they obtain releases from the rest of the world.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 11, 2008 (boomark / email).