Posted on 04/18/2005 10:06:32 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court on Monday reinstated a lawsuit brought by survivors of the Holocaust in Croatia, the Ukraine and Yugoslavia who allege the Vatican Bank accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers.
The Vatican Bank, the financial arm of the Roman Catholic Church, denies allegations that during World War II it stored the looted assets from thousands of gypsies, Jews, Serbs and others who were killed or captured by the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that controlled Croatia.
A federal judge had dismissed the 1999 case, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the survivors should have their day in court in an effort to be compensated for their monetary losses, and to be given an accounting of what money, if any, the bank received from the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime.
An attorney for the survivors and their beneficiaries said the decision, combined with a new pope expected to be named any day, could spark an out-of-court settlement.
"A new pope might be more energetic than the old pope in these matters," attorney Jonathan Levy said. "The Vatican has been very hesitant on this."
Church officials were not immediately available for comment. The bank's attorney, Jeffrey Lena of Berkeley, did not answer repeated phone calls, but told the court in October that the allegations were "particularly tenuous."
Cardinals began meeting in Vatican City on Monday to pick the successor to Pope John Paul II, who died April 2.
In 1998, Swiss banks agreed to pay as much as $1.25 billion to Nazi victims and their families who accused the banks of stealing, concealing or sending to the Nazis hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Jewish holdings and destroying bank records to cover the paper trail.
In reinstating the monetary claims against the Vatican Bank, the San Francisco-based appeals court overruled a lower court judge who said the lawsuit was barred because it could upset a "governmental negotiations and diplomacy" toward resolving claims originating from World War II.
"No ongoing government negotiations, agreements or settlements are on the horizon," Judge Margaret McKeown ruled for the three-judge panel.
In dissent, Judge Stephen Trott said only Congress and the president, not the judicial branch, have the authority to deal with the fallout of World War II.
"This opinion, albeit well-meaning and well-intentioned, extends the concept of judicial authority into unknown territory and mistakenly exercises power and competence that plainly belongs to the president and Congress," Trott wrote.
Trott added that the majority's opinion will open up the floodgates of U.S. courts to litigate claims regarding the "horrors from Haiti, Cuba, Rwanda, South African, the Soviet Union, Bosnia, Sudan, Somalia, North Korea, Iraq, and who knows where?"
All three judges voted to reject human rights violations charging the bank assisted in genocide. The lawsuit includes World War II survivors and their relatives - many living in the United States.
The case is Alperin v. Vatican Bank, 03-15208.
Ok, call me stupid. Any lawyers want to explain how the CA court is in charge of a lawsuit involving European matters such as this?
Nam Vet
Im not sure and too pooped to look now.
I haven't dug back thru the original 1999 case filing..
California is the center of some the wackiest court cases more times than not, unfortunately.
Well, considering that the old Pope is deader then Yasser Arafat, that kind of goes with out saying. Does it not?
Surely the statute of limitations is up.
Isn't it 3 years for civil matters in California? WWII was over, what, 60 YEARS ago?
I don't think there is a statute of limitations on "War Crimes".
=== how the CA court is in charge of a lawsuit involving European matters such as this?
The "Survivors and their Beneficiaries" live here. Both the Church and the various Euro Soviets have a presence here.
=== I don't think there is a statute of limitations on "War Crimes".
Great! Perhaps "the Surivors and their Beneficiaries" might one day get around to suing the US Government for paperclipping in the brains behind the "applied biology" that was National Socialism.
Or not ... suits like this have a lot more incentive to offer where the "Survivors and their Beneficiaries" are concerned.
Just one more ruling from our Alice in Wonderland legal system.
From what I've read Poland will be sued next. Wonder if they'll fight or give in to blackmail.
All this stuff happened 60 years ago, and now they sue?
Very suspicious
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