13 June, 2006
The United States Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Austrian Jewish victims of the Nazi regime whose litigation had tied up payments from a US$ 210 million settlement. The judges refused to amend a decision by an appeals court which sided with the Bush administration in dismissing the class-action lawsuit against Austria. That decision late last year cleared the way for payouts from a 2001 settlement fund. So far, more than 2,000 payments have been made to Austrian Jews whose property was confiscated during the Nazi era and World War II. The fund was set up through negotiations with the Austrian government and businesses. Lawyers who filed the class-action lawsuit told justices that the appeals court panel "swayed perhaps by an understandable desire to obtain some measure of compensation for Holocaust survivors during their lifetimes, has dismissed this case for the wrong reason."
The lawsuit had been filed in 2000 by present and former nationals of Austria and their heirs and successors who suffered from Nazi persecution between 1938 and 1945. Had the high court intervened and reinstated the case, Austria could have been forced to defend itself in court despite the settlement. Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Jewish Claims Conference, said more than 2,000 payments had already been made and more would be forthcoming: "It's important that payments are made quickly, because they are symbolic. As much as they are about the money, they are also about the history."
