Five Holocaust survivors appealed a court’s dismissal of their challenge to a settlement between an Italian Holocaust-era insurer and claimants.
The survivors, from across the country, filed their appeal Wednesday in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals based in New York. They want the court to allow their claim against the deal brokered by the International Commission for Holocaust Era Insurance Claims between Assicurazioni Generali and litigants to go ahead.
The claim, dismissed earlier this year in a federal court, alleges that ICHEIC and Generali made little effort to enable appeals against the rejection of claims. It alleges that appeals were inhibited because fewer than 400 claimants were notified of decisions, although Generali rejected just over half of the approximately 10,000 claims it received. As a class-action claim, its remedies would be available to non-litigants should it succeed.
The appeal comes just weeks after a former ICHEIC commissioner alleged to The New York Jewish Week that commissioners were instructed to impose a “heavy burden of proof” if no policy could be found, which seems to contradict ICHEIC’s original mandate of considerable latitude in dealing with claims.
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