Associated Press
July 30 2004
Judge approves landmark insurance settlement to benefit Armenians
TIM MOLLOY
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES – A judge approved a landmark $20 million settlement in a
lawsuit seeking unpaid life insurance benefits for descendants of
Armenians killed nearly 90 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they filed the class-action suit to
raise awareness of the deaths as well as to win money from New York
Life Insurance Co.
They contend that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in an act of
genocide by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Turkey rejects the genocide
claim and maintains that Armenians were killed in civil unrest during
the collapse of the empire.
The legal agreement approved by U.S. District Court Judge Christina
A. Snyder is believed to be the first ever in connection with the
disputed event.
“As lawyers and descendants of victims of the genocide, we were able
to bring to court a lawsuit that brings some recognition of the
genocide,” said attorney Brian S. Kabateck, who, like co-counsel Mark
Geragos, is Armenian-American.
New York Life sold about 8,000 policies in the Ottoman Empire
beginning in the 1880s, with less than half of those bought by
Armenians. It stopped selling insurance there in 1915.
The company said it located about one-third of the policyholders’
descendants to pay benefits. The rest of the policies languished
because the remaining heirs could not be found, the firm said.
Under the agreement, $11 million will be set aside to pay claims by
heirs of some 2,400 policyholders. About $3 million will go to
Armenian charitable organizations.
Another $2 million will be used for administrative costs, with
anything not spent on expenses going to the charities. The remaining
$4 million will cover attorneys’ fees.
One of the plaintiffs, 89-year-old Martin Marootian, will receive
$250,000 because of his work for decades to bring about the lawsuit.
His attorneys said he has also suffered because of criticism from
others in the Armenian-American community who opposed the settlement
as insufficient.
Geragos said some of the critics wrongly believe the case involves
reparations for the killings rather than insurance payments.
Marootian was born in New York in 1915 – the year that Armenians
contend the Turks began the executions to punish Armenians for
allegedly helping the invading Russian army during World War I.
France and Russia are among 15 countries, along with a United Nations
human rights panel, that have recognized the genocide. The United
States has not made such a declaration.