US appeals court reverses decision over Armenian suit: Hurriyet

12:52 • 14.12.10

A federal United States appeals court on Friday voted to allow the heirs of Armenians killed during the late Ottoman Empire to seek payment from companies that sold their relatives life insurance.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a California law labeling the killings as "genocide" does not conflict with U.S. foreign policy, which the court said is unsettled on the issue.

The ruling was made 2-1, the same vote the same judicial panel came to last year when it struck down the California law empowering the heirs to sue the companies that had sold life insurance policies to Armenians killed during the Ottoman era in World War I.

Last year, the same panel concluded that the U.S. government had sided with the Turkish government and formally taken the position against labeling the killings “genocide.” Therefore, that panel concluded, California's calling the event “genocide” conflicted with U.S. foreign policy, making the state law invalid.

But in a rare and stunning move Friday, Judge Dorothy Nelson changed her mind and sided with Judge Harry Pregerson, which turned his 2009 dissenting opinion into law. "We conclude that there is no express federal policy forbidding states to use the term ‘Armenian Genocide,’” Pregerson wrote. The ruling revived a lawsuit filed by heirs against three German insurers, including Munich Re AG.

"This was totally unexpected," said attorney Brian Kabateck, who represents the Armenian heirs. "It's a great victory for the Armenia people."

Kabateck and other lawyers have filed similar lawsuits against New York Life Insurance Co. and French insurer AXA, which were settled in 2005 for a combined value of $37.5 million.

Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies this, saying any deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms in an independence struggle in eastern Anatolia.
 

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