FRENCH INSURANCE CO. AGREES TO PAY $17 MILLION TO GENOCIDE HEIRS
By Harut Sassounian; Publisher, The California Courier
AZG Armenian Daily #179
06/10/2005
Armenian Genocide
The French Insurance Company Axa agreed to pay $17 million to
descendants of life insurance policyholders who perished during the
Armenian Genocide.
This announcement was made by Mark Geragos, a prominent Los Angeles
attorney, during the Oct. 2 banquet of the USC Institute of Armenian
Studies honoring Federal Judge Dickran Tevrizian.
Geragos, along with attorneys Vartkes Yeghiayan and Brian Kabateck,
had filed a class action lawsuit in a California federal court against
Axa for failing to pay death benefits for the insurance policies
purchased by Armenians in Turkey prior to the Armenian Genocide. Judge
Tevrizian mediated the $17 million settlement which will be disbursed
as follows: Up to $11 million for the heirs of close to 11,000 life
insurance policyholders; $3 million for various Armenian charities;
and $3 million for attorneys’ fees.
A French-Armenian charitable group will process and pay the claims. Any
funds leftover after all claimants are paid would be turned over to
the French-Armenian charity.
The Axa settlement follows a similar agreement with New York Life
Insurance Company in early 2004. New York Life agreed to pay $20
million which was to be disbursed as follows: Up to $11 million for the
heirs of 2,400 life insurance policyholders who perished during the
Armenian Genocide; $3 million for nine Armenian-American charitable
and religious organizations; $2 million for administrative expenses;
and $4 million for attorney’s fees.
In a lengthy interview with the French Armenian magazine, Nouvelles
d’Armenie (September 2005 issue), Yeghiayan provided several intriguing
details regarding the activities and irresponsible conduct of L’Union
insurance company which was purchased by Axa in 1996.
L’Union started selling insurance policies in the Ottoman Empire
in the 1870 ‘s and continued to do so until 1931. Simon Kayserlyan
was the Director of the 51 offices of the firm in Turkey. According
to a letter sent by L’Union to the French Foreign Ministry in 1922,
the company had sold 10,899 life insurance policies by the time of
the Armenian Genocide.
In that 1922 letter, L’Union disclosed that it risked losing 42 million
French Francs or $8 million as a result of the deaths of its Armenian
policyholders. The letter also said that not meeting its obligations
to the perished Armenians would tarnish the company’s reputation
and prestige.
While New York Life made some attempts in the aftermath of the Genocide
to locate and pay those entitled to receive death benefits, L’Union
categorically refused to make any payments. In the early 1920’s when
French-Armenian refugee centers in Paris wrote to L’Union asking
to see the list of Armenian policyholders, the company reportedly
refused, saying that such private information could not be divulged
to outside parties.
In 1928, the High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of
Nations asked several insurance companies to disclose the list of
their Armenian clients, explaining that the heirs of some insurance
policyholders were children living in extremely destitute conditions
in refugee camps and that funds from the insurance benefits would
considerably ameliorate their situation. L ‘Union reportedly responded
by saying that it could not comply with the request, as it was unable
to tell which of its clients were Armenians.
Furthermore, the company made impossible demands from the families
of perished individuals in order to avoid paying them. For example,
in a June 18, 1925 letter, L’Union told an Armenian claimant
to provide a death certificate and a notarized document from the
Turkish Consulate in Athens proving his relationship to the deceased
policyholder. Whereas New York Life accepted the documents provided
by the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, L’ Union refused to accept
such documents, demanding that the survivors of the Genocide return to
Turkey to obtain the necessary certificates from Turkish courts. As
a result, not a single Armenian policyholder got a penny from this
company. After 1945, the company came up with a new argument for
refusing all requests for payment. It said that due to the 30-year
statute of limitations, it was no longer obligated to make any payments
for policies written prior to 1915.
The Axa settlement has a significant advantage over the one with New
York Life. Thanks to the efforts of the three Armenian attorneys,
Judge Tevrizian and Axa executives, there is a clear reference to
the Armenian Genocide in the text of the Axa settlement, whereas in
the New York Life agreement, the Armenian Genocide is merely referred
to as “the tragic events of 1915.”
The October issue of the French magazine, L’Expansion, reported that
the next insurance company to be sued by the Armenian lawyers for
non-payment of Genocide era insurance claims would be the German firm,
Victoria. There is also talk of a lawsuit being filed against the
British insurance company, Gresham, and various German banks that
operated in Turkey and had taken deposits from Armenians in that
country prior to the Genocide.
The next legal step would be to sue the Turkish government for its
illegal confiscation of the personal and real properties of Armenians
in Turkey after the Genocide.