Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Insurer to Pay Armenian Massacre Claims
by Joseph B. Treaster, New York Times - April 12, 2001
Posted: Saturday, April 14, 2001 00:02 am CST

More than 85 years after the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, one of America's biggest life insurance companies agreed yesterday to pay up to $10 million to heirs of the victims.

In settling a federal class-action lawsuit brought in Los Angeles, the insurer, the New York Life Insurance Company, said it would also pay at least $3 million to Armenian charities, mainly church groups.

New York Life executives said in interviews yesterday that the company had sought out relatives of victims of the massacre for several years after the killings, which began in 1915, and paid claims on more than 1,100 lives. They estimated that about 2,200 other policies had been unresolved.

"No one came forward," said William Werfelman, a spokesman for New York Life. "And we couldn't find any heirs."

But in the suit, Martin Marootian, an 85-year-old retired pharmacist in southern California, said his family had corresponded with New York Life for more than 75 years, trying to obtain the benefits from a policy on an uncle of his, Setrak Cheytanian, who was killed on June 21, 1915.

The insurance company "neither agreed to pay, refused to pay nor paid the benefits," the lawsuit said, "but acted continually to delay and obfuscate its obligations under the policy."

New York Life confirmed that it had been in touch with the Marootian family for decades.

"We were ready to pay Martin Marootian's mother 30 years ago and three years ago," said Michael A. DeMicco, the deputy general counsel for New York Life. "But they never provided proof that they were related to the policyholder."

Finally, Mr. DeMicco said, "They sued us."

Eleven other Armenian-Americans joined the lawsuit, on behalf of thousands of others, saying that New York Life had, likewise, not paid death benefits for relatives.

The question of what happened to the Armenians from 1915 to 1922 remains highly emotional for Turks and Armenians. Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered, but Turks say 300,000 Armenians died after Armenian military leaders sided with Russia in World War I.

New York Life's first reaction to the Armenian-Americans' lawsuit was to try to have it dismissed. The case caught the attention of state lawmakers in California, home to a large community of Armenians, and the legislature passed a special bill extending the statute of limitations and permitting Armenian-Americans to file suits in California against insurers to recover money from unpaid policies.

Around New Year's, New York Life began negotiating with lawyers for the plaintiffs and on Monday, after reaching the agreement that was announced yesterday, the motion to dismiss was withdrawn.

William M. Shernoff, one of the lawyers for the Armenian-Americans, said that once negotiations began, New York Life "seemed to want to get to the bottom of this quickly and do the right thing."

That was in contrast, he said, to several European insurance companies that he has been opposing in suits on behalf of Holocaust victims.

"They have been stonewalling us to death, litigating us to death," he said, "using every little legal technicality they can to defeat our claims."

Mr. Shernoff said a general agreement had been reached on a settlement with several of the European companies, but "there are still a few snags" and negotiations are continuing with other insurers.

In the Armenian case, Brian Kabateck, the lead lawyer, said that at first, New York Life denied it had a list of policyholders. But it later produced a list, he said, which the European insurers have yet to do.

According to New York Life, 8,000 policies had been sold in Turkey before sales were stopped in 1914 because of World War I. In reviewing the policies, both sides agreed that about 3,600 of them had been bought by Armenians. The company paid claims or coverage was dropped on about 300 policies before the massacres. Then another 1,100 were paid, leaving about 2,200 unresolved.

As part of the agreement, New York Life is to publish the names of the policyholders in major American newspapers as well as ethnic newspapers.

Evidence of family ties to a policyholder is to be presented to a panel of three Armenian-Americans.

The coverage in the Armenian policies averaged a little less than $1,000 each, both sides said, and New York Life has agreed to pay heirs 10 times the amount stated on the policies.

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