United States Second Circuit

In an action seeking payment of benefits on insurance policies purchased by plaintiffs' family members from defendant-insurer in the years leading up to the Holocaust, dismissal of the action is affirmed where plaintiffs' state-law claims were preempted by the foreign policy of the U.S., which favored resolution of Holocaust-era insurance claims in the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), an international claims resolution organization founded by private insurance companies and supported by the U.S. and other foreign government entities.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/10/2008
• Decided 01/15/2010
• Published 01/15/2010

Judges

• LEVAL, Circuit Judge:, Before: LEVAL, CALABRESI, and POOLER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• William M. Shernoff, Shernoff Bidart & Darras, Claremont, CA (Nancy Sher Cohen, Warrington S. Parker III, Reynold Siemens, John C. Ulin, Doug M. Keller, Peggy J. Williams, and Esta L. Brand, Heller Ehrman LLP, Lawrence Kill and Linda Gerstel, Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C., Robert A. Swift and Joanne Zack, Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C., Caryn Becker, Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, Joel Cohen and Evangeline F. Garris, Shernoff Bidart & Darras, Samuel J. Dubbin, Dubbin & Kravetz, LLP, Thomas R. Fahl, Flanner, Stack & Fahl LLP, on the brief), for Appellants., Samuel J. Dubbin, Dubbin & Kravetz, LLP, Miami, FL, for Appellants Dr. Thomas Weiss, Erna Birnbaum Gottesman, and Martha Birnbaum Younger., Thomas R. Fahl, Flanner, Stack & Fahl LLP, Brookfield, WI, for Appellant Edward David., Sharon Swingle, Attorney, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, Washington, D.C. (John B. Bellinger, III, Legal Adviser, United States Department of State, Gregory G. Katsas, Assistant Attorney General, Mark B. Stern and Benjamin M. Shultz, Attorneys, Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, on the brief), for Amicus Curiae United States of America., Benjamin M. Shultz, Attorney, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, Washington, D.C. (Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser, United States Department of State, Tony West, Assistant Attorney General, Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, David S. Jones, Assistant United States Attorney, Mark B. Stern and Sharon Swingle, Attorneys, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, on the briefs), for Amicus Curiae United States of America., Michael D. Ramsey, University of San Diego Law School, San Diego, CA, for Amici Curiae Professors of Constitutional Law and Foreign Relations Law of the United States.


• For Appellees:
  
• Marco E. Schnabl, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, New York, N.Y. (Kenneth J. Bialkin, Barry H. Garfinkel, Peter Simshauser, and Lance A. Etcheverry, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Franklin B. Velie, Sullivan & Worcester LLP, on the brief), for Appellee.