The Fresno Bee
Legislators aid recovery of Armenians’ assets
By E.J. Schultz / Bee Capitol Bureau
(Updated Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 4:16 AM)
SACRAMENTO – Lawyers seeking to recover millions of dollars in bank deposits
for Armenian genocide victims are getting some help this week from state
lawmakers.
A class-action lawsuit filed against two German banks seeks the return of
cash, bonds, gold jewelry and other assets that lawyers believe are owed to
an estimated 2,000 heirs of genocide victims, including some possibly living
in the San Joaquin Valley, home of thousands of Armenian-Americans.
Senate Bill 1524 by Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, and Sen. Jackie Speier,
D-Hillsborough – both of Armenian decent – would extend the statute of
limitations for such claims until 2016. It passed the Assembly on Monday on
a 77-0 vote and will likely pass the Senate before the session ends
Thursday.
Gov. Schwarzenegger supports the bill, according to his office.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this year on behalf of several Armenians
living in Southern California. Lawyers have argued that the plaintiffs are
free to sue under current law, but attorneys for the defendants have replied
that the statute of limitations prohibits the action, said Vartkes
Yeghiayan, a Los Angeles-area attorney representing the Armenians.
If the bill were to become law, it "would certainly fortify our position,"
Yeghiayan said.
Deutsche Bank A.G., one of the two banks sued, did not return a call for
comment. The other bank sued is Dresdner Bank A.G.
The bill has already cleared the Legislature once this year. But it was tied
to another bill that would have allowed Mexican-American victims of a 1930s
deportation campaign to seek damages for being forcibly sent back to Mexico.
The repatriation was sometimes violent, as immigrants were taken across the
border on trucks, buses and trains, according to the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund, which backed the bill.
Schwarzenegger vetoed the Mexican deportation bill last week, arguing that
it would have allowed "private litigation of potentially thousands of claims
against the state, local governments and private citizens."
The governor did not act on the Armenian bill, allowing lawmakers to pull it
back and remove the hook to the Mexican bill. Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana,
who led the effort to link the two bills, criticized Republicans for
supporting the Armenian bill but rejecting the Mexican bill.
"I have been consistently concerned about the hypocrisy that has shown up on
the Senate floor from my Republican colleagues on these two bills," said
Dunn, who supports the Armenian bill. "The unfortunate continuing injustice
here is that the handful of surviving victims of the illegal deportation of
the 1930s still do not have an opportunity for their day in court."
Poochigian said the bills never should have been linked because "they are
completely different issues." The Armenian bill, he said, deals with
breaches of contract by private entities, rather than claims against the
state of California.
The Armenian genocide refers to the period between 1915 and 1923, when
Armenians were driven from their homeland in the Ottoman Empire by means of
torture, starvation and murder. The Armenian community says that 1.5 million
people died.
The effort to recover bank deposits comes on the heels of a successful drive
to secure millions of dollars in unpaid insurance claims owed to genocide
victims. New York Life Insurance Co. and heirs of about 2,400 policy holders
agreed on a $20 million settlement in 2004, followed by a $17 million
settlement between French life insurance company AXA and about 5,000 people
and charities, according to published reports.
The deals were made possible as a result of Poochigian-authored legislation
that extended the statute of limitations for insurance claims until 2010.
The current bill allows genocide victims or heirs living in the state to go
beyond insurance policies and seek bank deposit claims until 2016.
"It rights a terrible wrong dating back to the beginning of the last
century," Speier said.
There are no firm estimates on how much money and assets could be recovered,
but "all indications are it’s enormous," said lead attorney Mark Geragos in
a phone interview last week.
Geragos – an Armenian-American whose family name is Geragosian – has
emotional ties to the case. His grandparents fled the genocide and settled
in Fresno, where they ran a grocery store on Belmont Street, he said.
The famed Los Angeles attorney has handled a number of high-profile cases
and his client list has included the likes of Michael Jackson, Scott
Petersen and, most recently, the trainer for Barry Bonds.
But the Armenian case, Geragos said, has the "greatest personal significance
of any of the cases I’ve ever been associated with."
The reporter can be reached at [email protected]
<mailto:eschultz@fresnob ee.com> or (916) 326-5541.
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