The Armenians aimed to invoke Californian legislation allowing the survivors to bring proceedings for insurance claims. But the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals – sitting in en banc, in other words, with all the court’s judges hearing the matter – unanimously ruled that the local law is pre-empted under the foreign affairs doctrine.
German insurers
The ruling came as a relief to Munich-based reinsurance company Munich Re, the parent company of the insurers involved in the suit, which was represented by global law firm Mayer Brown.
California-based legal newspaper The Recorder reported that Judge Susan Graber wrote that the ‘clear and real purpose’ of the Californian law is to ‘provide potential monetary relief and a friendly forum for those who suffered from certain foreign events’. Nonetheless, she went on to rule that the law intrudes on the federal government’s ‘exclusive power to conduct and regulate foreign affairs.’
Multi-party actions
Therefore, the Armenian’s argument that the Californian law concerned an area of traditional state responsibility because it regulated insurance was rejected.
The law was passed in 2000, with a Code of Civil Procedure which allowed California courts to hear insurance claims by ‘Armenian genocide victims’. The measure was introduced as survivors of Armenians killed or persecuted during and immediately following the First World War sought to bring a multi-party actions over life insurance policies, claiming breach of contract, unjust enrichment and other infringements.
German insurers
The ruling came as a relief to Munich-based reinsurance company Munich Re, the parent company of the insurers involved in the suit, which was represented by global law firm Mayer Brown.
California-based legal newspaper The Recorder reported that Judge Susan Graber wrote that the ‘clear and real purpose’ of the Californian law is to ‘provide potential monetary relief and a friendly forum for those who suffered from certain foreign events’. Nonetheless, she went on to rule that the law intrudes on the federal government’s ‘exclusive power to conduct and regulate foreign affairs.’
Multi-party actions
Therefore, the Armenian’s argument that the Californian law concerned an area of traditional state responsibility because it regulated insurance was rejected.
The law was passed in 2000, with a Code of Civil Procedure which allowed California courts to hear insurance claims by ‘Armenian genocide victims’. The measure was introduced as survivors of Armenians killed or persecuted during and immediately following the First World War sought to bring a multi-party actions over life insurance policies, claiming breach of contract, unjust enrichment and other infringements.
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