Judge approves Holocaust settlement with Italian insurer - again

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
For the second time, a US judge approved a settlement Monday among Holocaust victims, their heirs and an Italian insurer, turning aside objections from a few victims who believe the company is getting off easy. Saying the settlement was "fair, reasonable and adequate," US District Judge George B. Daniels ended more than a decade of litigation over the claim that Assicurazioni Generali refused to honor policies held by victims of the World War II-era genocide. The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court was among nearly two dozen that were thrown out in 2004 by then US District Judge Michael Mukasey, who said the class-action suits were pre-empted by the US government's policy of trying to resolve such claims through a special commission. Mukasey is now US attorney general. The cases were eventually settled, with Generali agreeing to pay some $175 million (€119 million) to survivors and their relatives through the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims and other channels.