State to Inspect Firm’s Files in Holocaust Case

Reversing field, a major Italian insurance company has agreed to permit investigators from the California Department of Insurance to inspect company records related to Holocaust survivors, Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush announced Tuesday.

The company, Assicuriazioni Generali, is one of the primary defendants in a federal lawsuit in New York filed by survivors and their children against 15 European insurers stemming out of claims. The suit alleges that in many instances “proceeds from the insurance policies of the victims of Nazi persecution were used to finance and extend the war or otherwise enrich Nazi war criminals.”

Quackenbush said that Generali, based in Trieste, Italy, had agreed to his demand to see company records, after federal judges in New York and San Francisco rejected Generali’s request to quash subpoenas issued by the state insurance department.

Quackenbush said at a hearing in Los Angeles in November that about 18,000 to 20,000 California residents have unpaid claims that may be relevant to the lawsuits. Virtually all of the defendants have U.S. operations, and Quackenbush in January threatened to strip some of them of their licenses to do business in California if they fail to honor valid Holocaust-related claims.

Under the new agreement, investigators from Quackenbush’s office and the National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners will be allowed to look at the company’s files.

M. Scott Vayer, a New York attorney for Generali, said: “We look forward to the new direction we have embarked on with the California Department of Insurance, the NAIC and all persons concerned with the issues of Holocaust insurance.”

In a related action Tuesday, the insurance commissioners’ association voted to have Quackenbush head an interstate regulatory strike team that will examine the files of European insurers who are suspected of withholding payments owed to Holocaust survivors and to the heirs of those who died.

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Jewish leaders and key lawmakers, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), who had suggested an international commission to review the records, praised the developments.

“Insurance companies in Europe must understand that access to records is merely the first step toward the ultimate goal of securing full compensation on Holocaust-era claims,” Feinstein said.

Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress said: “The continued pressure of state and federal government officials is beginning to move European insurers to live up to their past obligations.”

William Palmer, the California Department of Insurance’s general counsel, said the department has sent one of its senior lawyers along with auditors from Ernst & Young and Coopers & Lybrand, two of the nation’s largest accounting firms, to plan how best to review the records.

Quackenbush stressed that “time is of the essence” to resolve thousands of disputed insurance claims because many of the claimants are elderly people who have been trying in vain for decades to get policies honored.

He said a plan approved by the insurance commissioners would create:

* An international commission to oversee independent inspections of records locked up for decades in Europe

* A universal 800 number, address and Web site to access claims information

* A standard for claims payment that factors in interest and economics

* A timetable that takes into account the urgency of the issue.

Anita G. Ramasastry, an international law professor at the University of Washington, called Tuesday’s developments a “significant event.” It is quite unusual for a foreign company to permit a U.S. regulator to inspect its records, she said.

Whether the company will allow similar access to the lawyers who represent the survivors remains unclear. However, one of those attorneys, Rene Siemens of Los Angeles, said he anticipated that the plaintiffs would benefit one way or the other.

“Obviously, Commissioner Quackenbush can collect documents more quickly than we can through the civil discovery grind,” he said.