[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1746 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1746
To require disclosure of Holocaust-era policies by insurers and
establish a federal cause of action for claims arising out of a covered
policy.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 28, 2007
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for herself, Mr. Wexler, Mr. Cantor, Mr. Pence, and
Mr. Chabot) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committees on
Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require disclosure of Holocaust-era policies by insurers and
establish a federal cause of action for claims arising out of a covered
policy.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Holocaust Insurance Accountability
Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Holocaust, an event in which millions of people
endured enormous suffering through torture and other violence,
including the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and millions of others,
the destruction of families and communities, and the theft of
their assets, was one of the most heinous crimes in human
history.
(2) Before and during World War II, millions of people
purchased insurance policies to safeguard family assets, plan
for retirement, provide for a dowry, or save for their
children's education.
(3) When Holocaust survivors or heirs of Holocaust victims
presented claims to insurance companies after World War II,
many were rejected because they did not have death certificates
or physical possession of policy documents that had been
confiscated by the Nazis or lost in the devastation of the
Holocaust.
(4) In many instances, insurance company records and
records in government archives are the only proof of the
existence of insurance policies belonging to Holocaust victims.
(5) Holocaust survivors and heirs have been attempting for
decades to persuade insurance companies to settle unpaid
insurance claims.
(6) In 1998, the International Commission on Holocaust Era
Insurance Claims (in this section referred to as the
``ICHEIC'') was established by the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners in cooperation with several European
insurance companies, European regulators, the Government of
Israel, and non-governmental organizations with the promise
that it would expeditiously address the issue of unpaid
insurance policies issued to Holocaust victims.
(7) On July 17, 2000, the United States and Germany signed
an Executive Agreement in support of the German Foundation
``Remembrance, Responsibility, and the Future'', which
designated the ICHEIC to resolve all Holocaust-era insurance
policies issued by German companies and their subsidiaries.
(8) On January 17, 2001, the United States and Austria
signed an Executive Agreement, which designated the ICHEIC to
resolve all Holocaust-era insurance policies issued by Austrian
companies and their subsidiaries.
(9) Between 1998 and the closing of the ICHEIC claims
deadline on December 31, 2003, few names of the Jewish policy
holders from Eastern Europe were published, though more than
two-thirds of the Jewish population of the territory occupied
by the Nazis and their allies were from Eastern Europe.
(10) The ICHEIC is scheduled to close in 2007 without the
disclosure of thousands of names of policies sold to Jewish
residents of Europe prior to World War II as of February of
2007.
(11) With the ICHEIC process essentially completed,
companies holding Holocaust-era insurance policies continue to
withhold names of owners and beneficiaries of thousands of
insurance policies sold to Jewish customers prior to World War
II.
(12) Experts estimate that the value in 2006 of unpaid
life, annuity, endowment, and dowry insurance theft from
European Jewry from the Holocaust and its aftermath ranges
between $17,000,000,000 and $200,000,000,000.
(13) As of the latest report by the ICHEIC on February 20,
2007, the value of claims paid in recognition of victims'
policies was approximately $250,000,000 and fewer than 5
percent of the policies estimated to have been sold to Jews at
the beginning of World War II have been paid through ICHEIC.
(14) As of 2006, ICHEIC has not provided the State
Department with the information required by paragraphs (3)
through (7) of section 704(a) of the Foreign Relations
Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-228), which
requires the Secretary of State to report to the appropriate
congressional committees on the status of the implementation of
the Executive Agreement between Germany and the United States.
(15) In American Insurance Association, Inc., v. Garamendi,
the United States Supreme Court held that under the supremacy
clause of the Constitution of the United States, executive
agreements and Federal Government policy calling for insurance
claims against German and Austrian companies to be handled
within ICHEIC preempted State laws authorizing State insurance
commissioners to subpoena company records and require
publication of the names of Holocaust era policy holders.
(16) In the Garamendi case, the Supreme Court stated that
Congress, which has the power to regulate international
commerce, and prescribe Federal Court jurisdiction, had not
addressed disclosure and restitution of Holocaust victims'
insurance policies.
(17) Subsequent court decisions have dismissed survivors'
suits against Assicurazioni Generali, S.p.A., even though there
is no executive agreement between the United States and Italy.
(18) Congress believes that United States courts do
currently have jurisdiction to entertain actions by Holocaust
victims and heirs of Holocaust victims to recover insurance
proceeds sold to their families before the Holocaust.
(19) Due to lower court interpretations of the Garamendi
case, this Act expresses the intent of Congress to legislate to
the maximum extent allowed by the Constitution regarding the
rights of Holocaust survivors and the heirs and beneficiaries
of Holocaust victims to obtain information from insurers and to
bring actions in United States courts to recover unpaid funds
from entities that participated in the theft of family
insurance assets or the affiliates of such entities.
(20) The ICHEIC either chose not to pursue or did not put
forth sufficient effort to investigate or obtain restitution
for forms of insurance other than life, annuity, endowment, or
dowry insurance sold to Holocaust victims, despite
documentation that other forms of insurance benefits such as
property and casualty insurance, disability insurance, health
insurance, transport insurance, and marine insurance were also
improperly withheld from Jews, nor did the ICHEIC make
sufficient effort to investigate the records of reinsurers who
provided coverage for Jews' policies prior to World War II,
despite evidence that reinsurers and reinsurance played a
significant role in the theft of the family assets of Holocaust
victims.
(21) Disclosures in 2006 concerning the vast Nazi archives
at Bad Arolsen Germany, which have been closed to direct access
by Holocaust survivors, families of Holocaust victims, and
researchers since 1955, underscores the necessity a
comprehensive opening of all archival sources of information
for Holocaust victims and their families.
(22) Insurance payments should be expedited to the victims
of the most heinous crime of the 20th Century to ensure that
justice is served.
(23) States should be allowed to collect Holocaust-era
insurance information from any insurance companies that want to
do business in such States.
(24) Tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors around the
world, including in the United States, live below or near the
poverty level, and cannot meet their basic day-to-day needs for
food, medicine, shelter, and other necessities.
(25) This Act will enable survivors, heirs, and
beneficiaries to obtain compensation commensurate with the real
monetary value of their losses, and to penalize unjustly
enriched insurers for their fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair
practices, which continue to the present day, and to deter such
conduct in the future.
(26) Holocaust victims and their families should be able to
recover claims arising from Holocaust era insurance policies
and the Federal Government should be able to recover for the
unjust enrichment of insurers in Federal court when they
consider it necessary to seek redress through the judicial
system.
(27) Under the circumstances faced by Holocaust victims and
their families, the courts of the United States should be open
to Holocaust victims and their families for a reasonable number
of years after enactment of this Act, without regard to any
other statutes of limitation.
SEC. 3. HOLOCAUST INSURANCE REGISTRY.
(a) Establishment and Maintenance.--Chapter 21 of title 44, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 2119. Holocaust Insurance Registry
``(a) Establishment.--The Archivist shall establish and maintain a
collection of records that shall--
``(1) consist of the information provided to the Archivist
under section 5 of the Holocaust Victims Insurance Relief Act
of 2007;
``(2) be known as the Holocaust Insurance Registry.
``(b) Public Access to the Records.--The Archivist shall make all
the aforementioned records accessible to the public and searchable by
means of the Internet and by any other means the Archivist deems
appropriate.''.
(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning of
chapter 21 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding at the
end the following:
``2119. Holocaust Insurance Registry.''.
(c) Agreements With European Countries.--
(1) Agreements.--The Secretary of State shall seek to enter
into agreements with European countries to make available to
the Holocaust Insurance Registry information on covered
policies that is stored in the archives or other government
repositories of such countries.
(2) Report.--Not later than 6 months after the date of the
enactment of this Act, and every 6 months thereafter, the
Secretary of State shall submit to Congress a report on efforts
to carry out this subsection.
SEC. 4. DISCLOSURE OF HOLOCAUST-ERA POLICIES BY INSURERS.
(a) Requirement.--An insurer shall file, in an electronic format,
with the Secretary of Commerce the following information:
(1) The first name, last name, date of birth, and domicile
of the policyholder of each covered policy issued or reinsured
by the insurer or a related company of the insurer.
(2) The name of the entity that issued the covered policy.
(3) The name of the entity that is responsible for the
liabilities of the entity that issued the covered policy.
(b) Filing.--Information under subsection (a) shall be filed not
later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 5. PROVISION OF INFORMATION TO ARCHIVIST.
The Secretary of Commerce shall provide to the Archivist of the
United States any information filed with the Secretary under section
4(a) promptly after the filing of such information.
SEC. 6. PENALTY.
The Secretary of Commerce shall assess a civil penalty of not less
than $5,000 for each day that an insurer fails to comply with the
requirements of section 4, as determined by the Secretary.
SEC. 7. USE OF AMOUNTS RECEIVED AS CIVIL PENALTIES.
To the extent or in the amounts provided in advance in
appropriation Acts, the Archivist of the United States may use amounts
received by the Government as civil penalties under section 6 to
maintain the Holocaust Insurance Registry.
SEC. 8. NOTIFICATION.
(a) Initial Notification.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, and periodically thereafter, the
Secretary of Commerce shall notify each State's commissioner of
insurance of the identity of each insurer that has failed to comply
with the requirements of section 4 or has not satisfied any civil
penalty for which the insurer is liable under section 6.
(b) Requests by States.--On request by the commissioner of
insurance of a State concerning an insurer operating in that State, the
Secretary of Commerce shall inform the commissioner of insurance
whether the insurer has failed to comply with the requirements of
section 4 or has not satisfied any civil penalty for which the insurer
is liable under section 6.
SEC. 9. STATE HOLOCAUST INSURANCE STATUTES.
(a) Preemption.--Nothing in this Act preempts--
(1) any State law requiring an insurer in such State to
disclose information regarding covered policies sold or for
which reinsurance was provided; or
(2) any rights or remedies available to a claimant under
State law relating to a covered policy.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress that if any
litigation challenging any State law described in subsection (a) is
dismissed because the State's commissioner of insurance chooses to rely
on this Act and therefore no longer seeks to enforce the State law,
each party should bear its own legal fees and costs.
SEC. 10. FEDERAL CAUSE OF ACTION FOR COVERED CLAIMS.
(a) Federal Cause of Action.--
(1) In general.--There shall exist a Federal cause of
action for any claim arising out of or related to a covered
policy against any insurer or related company.
(2) Effect on other causes of action.--An action under
paragraph (1) shall be maintainable in addition to any cause of
action arising under State or international law.
(3) Standing.--A claim under paragraph (1) may be brought
by the person who purchased such covered policy, a beneficiary
or heir of such person, or an assignee of such person or a
beneficiary or heir of such person.
(4) Treble damages; interest.--In an action under this
subsection, the measure of damages shall be not less than three
times the amount of--
(A) the claim under the covered policy in United
States dollars as of December 31, 1938; and
(B) interest at a rate of 6 percent per year
compounded annually from the date when the claim for
which an action exists under this subsection could have
first been made until the date of judgment under this
subsection.
(5) Attorneys fees.--In an action under this subsection, a
court shall award a successful claimant reasonable attorneys
fees and costs incurred in investigating and prosecuting the
claim.
(b) Subject Matter Jurisdiction.--The district courts shall have
original jurisdiction of any civil action arising out of or related to
a covered policy (whether brought under subsection (a) or otherwise).
(c) Personal Jurisdiction.--Notwithstanding any provision of Rule 4
of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to the contrary, in a civil
action arising from or related to a covered policy (whether brought
under subsection (a) or otherwise) commenced in a district where the
defendant is not a resident--
(1) the court may exercise jurisdiction over such defendant
on any basis not inconsistent with the Constitution of the
United States; and
(2) service of process, summons, and subpoena may be made
on such defendant in any manner not inconsistent with the
Constitution of the United States.
(d) Retroactive Application.--This Act shall apply retroactively to
any claim arising out of or related to a covered policy to the fullest
extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States, including
claims previously dismissed on the ground of executive preemption and
claims for which class action settlements occurring prior to the
effective date of this Act purport to effect a release of claims not
accompanied by an actual payment.
(e) Statute of Limitations.--Any action brought under this Act
shall be filed not later than 10 years after the effective date of this
Act.
SEC. 11. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Commissioner of insurance.--The term ``commissioner of
insurance'' means the highest ranking officer of a State
responsible for regulating insurance.
(2) Covered policy.--The term ``covered policy'' means any
life, dowry, education, property or other insurance policy that
was--
(A) in effect at any time after January 30, 1933,
and before December 31, 1945; and
(B) issued to a policyholder domiciled in any area
that was occupied or controlled by Nazi Germany or by
any ally or sympathizer of Nazi Germany at any time
during the period described in subparagraph (A).
(3) Insurer.--The term ``insurer'' means any person engaged
in the business of insurance (including reinsurance) in
interstate or foreign commerce, if the person or a related
company of the person issued or reinsured a covered policy,
regardless of when the related company became a related company
of the insurer.
(4) Related company.--The term ``related company'' means an
affiliate, as that term is defined in section 104(g) of the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. 6701(g)).
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