Friday, June 8, 2012

Holocaust Life Claims Update

Last Fall, we reported on the efforts to get Allianz and other insurers to honor the death claims of Holocaust victims' families. Spearheading this effort was Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who at the time was trying to convince the media to deny commercial time to the carrier.

While I have some issues with her apparent ignorance of how free speech is supposed to work (cf: Citizens United), I certainly applaud her enthusiasm.

Her latest effort to allow victims' families to sue the various insurers is currently stalled in committee:

"That brought dozens of Holocaust survivors, many of whom live in Florida, to Washington on Thursday to urge the House Judiciary Committee to consider legislation that would allow lawsuits to be filed in U.S. courts ... The proposed bipartisan bill ... would give thousands of survivors the right to sue Germany’s Allianz SE, Italy’s Assicurazioni Generali and other major European firms in U.S. courts to recover the value of life insurance policies bought before World War II."

Unfortunately, this looks like an uphill battle, since the current claims process was pretty much set in stone over the course of the three most recent administrations. And it also doesn't help that there's little enthusiasm on the part of Congress for revisiting the issue.

Still, it's a noble cause, and one which doesn't seem to be going quietly into that good night.

No comments:

Post a Comment