BREAKING NEWS: 9th Circuit Strikes Down Law on Genocide-Era Insurance Claims
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
The 9th Circuit Court
SAN FRANCISCO-Armenian Americans sharply criticized Thursday’s 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the Movsesian v. Versicherung
case, which would effectively bar Americans of Armenian descent from
seeking the return of stolen Armenian Genocide era insurance assets
through U.S. courts, under California law.
“This ruling opens the door for foreign governments to try to roll
back the clock on human rights, potentially putting at peril American
grassroots efforts – along the lines of the anti-Apartheid, Darfur
Genocide, and Free Tibet movements – that so often start at the state
and local level, sometimes even against opposition at the federal
level, before winning broad acceptance by the American people and
the U.S. government,” stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
“Turkey has no right to hold all three branches of the U.S. government
hostage to its irrational and hateful denial of the Armenian Genocide,
a crime that has already been broadly recognized by American civil
society and government, once by a U.S. President, at least twice
by the House of Representatives, 42 times by separate U.S. states,
and hundreds of times by municipal governments in nearly every state
of our union. There is nothing in this judgment – or in any court
ruling – that will stand in the way of our pursuit of a principled U.S.
policy in support of a truthful, just, and comprehensive resolution
of the Armenian Genocide.”
“Today’s court ruling highlights the ongoing human costs of the
White House’s complicity in Turkey’s denials of the Armenian Genocide,
and underscores the urgency of President Obama honoring his pledge to
properly recognize this crime against humanity,” concluded Hamparian.
In an 18-page ruling by the 9th Circuit Court, the Court found that a
California law, which extended the statute of limitations for Armenian
Genocide victims and their heirs to bring claims against corporations
for unpaid benefits, “intrudes on the federal government’s exclusive
power to conduct and regulate foreign affairs.” The decision cites
Turkey’s threats against countries which seek to properly commemorate
this crime and President Obama’s reticence to refer to the crime as
‘genocide’ in his annual commemorative statements as among the reasons
for their conclusion that the law “has a direct impact upon foreign
relations and may well adversely affect the power of the central
government to deal with those problems.”
The 9th Circuit Court decision specifically states that the court does
not “offer any opinion about California’s ability to express support
for Armenians by, for example, declaring a commemorative day.” Over 42
U.S. states have adopted resolutions or issued proclamations properly
commemorating the Armenian Genocide.
Prior to the en banc consideration of the matter on December 14,
2011, California Attorney General Kamala Harris was joined by Hawai’i
Attorney General David Louie, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha
Coakley, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, and Rhode
Island Attorney General Peter Kilmartin in defending California’s and
other states’ rights to enact legislation referring to the Armenian
Genocide. In a joint amicus brief, the Attorneys General argued that
“[a]llowing the federal government to dictate to the states the words
they may and may not use . . . raises a serious issue of federalism.”
They also noted that in contrast to other cases preempting state laws,
“here no treaty, congressional resolution or executive agreement
establishes a federal foreign policy that conflicts with, or displaces”
the California statute at hand.
California state and federal legislators, in a separate amicus brief,
noted that “there is no precedent for holding a state statute preempted
merely because of the terminology that it uses.” To do so would render
the foreign affairs doctrine “beyond recognition.” They also assert
that unlike other California statutes concerning Holocaust-era or World
War II slave labor claims, which have been struck down, “there is no
federal action to negotiate an international compensation regime for
claims related to the Armenian Genocide.” The amicus brief was filed
on behalf of U.S. Representatives Jackie Speier (D-CA), Anna Eshoo
(D-CA), and Ed Royce (R-CA); Speaker of the California State Assembly
John Perez (D-46); Majority Leader of the California State Assembly
Charles Calderon (D-58); California State Senators Kevin de Leon (D-22)
and S. Joseph Simitian (D-11), and; California State Assembly Members
Katcho Achadjian (R-33), Mike Gatto (D-43), and Anthony Portantino
(D-44). Former Supreme Court clerk Igor Timofeyev of the international
law firm Paul Hastings represented the California legislators pro bono.
Earlier in the case, the Armenian Bar Association, Armenian National
Committee of America, Zoryan Institute for Contemporary Armenian
Research and Documentation, Inc., the International Association of
Genocide Scholars, Genocide Education Project, Jewish Alliance for Law
and Social Action, and Center for the Study of Law and Genocide filed
amicus briefs and were represented “pro bono” by David Balabanian
and David Salmons, both partners at the international firm Bingham
McCutchen.
Amicus briefs in support of plaintiffs have also been submitted by
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), EarthRights International, and the
Center for Constitutional Rights.
Claims for unpaid life insurance policies dating back to the Armenian
Genocide were first brought by plaintiff’s attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan.
Attorneys representing plaintiffs include Brian Kabateck, Mark Geragos,
and Lee Crawford Boyd.
The 9th Circuit case Movsesian v. Versicherung AG involves life
insurance claims dating from the Armenian Genocide era. In 2000,
California passed a law, which extended the statute of limitations
for life insurance claims that were never paid out, in some cases
because insurance companies insisted heirs produce death certificates
of relatives, who were murdered during the Armenian Genocide, before
honoring the policies. The California statute, which was introduced by
former State Senator and current Associate Justice of the California
Court of Appeal Charles ‘Chuck’ Poochigian and former State Senator
and current Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA), allowed California
residents to file until December 31, 2010. The law has since been
amended through legislation introduced by State Assemblyman Mike Gatto
(D-43), extending the statute of limitations to file claims until
December 31, 2016. Defendant German insurance companies, which are
being represented by the Los Angeles office of Mayer Brown, have
been joined by the Republic of Turkey in their attempts to strike
down California’s law, claiming there is an “express federal policy”
to prohibit states from any reference to the Armenian Genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
http://asbarez.com/101123/breaking-news-9th-circuit-strikes-down-law-on-genocide-era-insurance-claims/