U.S. Appellate Court Overturns Lower Court Decision on Holocaust Payments

On May 17, 2001, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed a ruling by Judge Shirley Wohl Kram that had prevented the start of payments to Holocaust survivors under last year’s $4.4 billion settlement between the German Government and industry and former slave laborers. The ruling dismisses a class action lawsuit against German banks. The dismissal removes the last meaningful obstacle to the settlement, which requires the achievement of “legal peace” or the end of further litigation in the U.S. over the issue…[more]