"Slave descendants file one (b) billion-dollar suit against corporations"

New York-AP -- Descendants of slaves have filed a one (b) billion dollar lawsuit against eight corporations they say profited by committing genocide against their ancestors.

The federal suit was filed in New York today. It accuses the U-S and British corporations of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide" by financing and insuring the ships that delivered slaves to plantations in the U-S.

Their lawyers say it's the first such lawsuit that uses D-N-A to link the plaintiffs to Africans who suffered atrocities during the slave trade. The suit says one plaintiff is linked to a tribe whose people were "kidnapped, tortured and shipped in chains."

A spokeswoman for one company named -- R.J. Reynolds -- says they haven't received a copy of the suit yet.

In January, a federal judge in Chicago threw out a similar suit brought by descendants of slaves.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

So, do they have a case?

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup

Although the Plaintiff's attorneys have a statute of limitations problem, the successful Holocaust settlement proves that they have a chance.

Like the Holocaust survivors who did get payments if they had an eligible ancestor, the survivors of slavery would be able to collect although the payment structure would be extremely difficult because unlike the Holocaust survivors, the survivors of the slavery period are many generations removed.

I would not have mentioned this on SR, but I worked on the Holocaust Victim's Asset litigation. I did not participate in the lawsuit or settlement, but I did spend a lot of time reviewing files to determine who had a valid claim and who didn't. It would be an administrative nightmare to have to do the same job with eligible decendants many generations removed.

Do I think they will see any money? My best guess is that the huge pool of eligible decendants will receive something but it will be a tiny amount of money and even that will not happen if the corporations decide to fully litigate the case (which the holocaust defendants did not do).

I also read that the Egyptian government is suing Israel over the gold Israelites supposedly took with them during the exodus.

Unfortunatley for me, I am a White male of German heritige so as much as I would like to sue someone for something that happened a few centuries ago, defendants will be hard to find.

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You could sue the French for causing your ancestors chronic headaches during their brief march through under Napoleon....

I have the same problem as you... the Germans whooped too much butt in Europe throughout history to have been the victims....

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Wow, Startup! Sounds like exciting work. (seriously)

I think we all have a good case against Italy for the rampaging the Romans did across Europe. Think I'll call my lawyer.

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup

they do have a chance, although mostly lawyers will gain from the settlements. i
think that this nonesense should stop. it is totally unreasonable that descendants of
victims are compensated by descendants of offenders - especially if there are several
generations in between. isn't there a statute of limitation in the american law system
too and why wouldn't (and didn't in the holocaust issue) it apply?

this all leads to an increase in demand of archeologists. i might get rich, if i find out
that my cavemen ancestors have been victims of some other guy's ancestors. perhaps
they weren't even cavemen then, but some sort of apes.

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It started out as exciting work, but each file had a description of what happened to the claimant and his or her family, and after a while, I really hated the work because I would literally spend most of my day reading the more horrific stories anyone can imagine.

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Usually attorneys do very well financially in bringing class action lawsuits, but with these cases, most are being prosecuted by not-for-profit organizations for the victims and if they accept any part of the eventual proceeds, amount accepted will be funneled into the work of the organization.

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as far as i know, ed fagan didn't really work pro bono and lives quite well off the
money his holocaust's victim's descendants got him.

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I'm not sure who Ed Fagan is but I, and the rest of us, did our work pro bono through the New York University Law School.

Professor Burt Neuborne’s work in holocaust litigation and settlement

For the past six years, Professor Burt Neuborne has been engaged in international human rights litigation designed to provide relief to Holocaust victims. The first case, filed in Federal Court in Brooklyn, was designed to force Swiss banks to account for funds deposited on the eve of the Holocaust by victims of Nazi persecution. The tragic reality of the Holocaust is that most of the depositors perished, along with the information needed to trace the accounts. After the war, the Swiss banks, embarrassed at having transferred many of the accounts to the Nazis, declined to cooperate with the families of victims in seeking to trace the Holocaust-related accounts.
After a period of intense litigation, the Swiss bank case was settled for $1.25 billion. $800 million has been set aside to repay bank deposits. Funds have also been allocated to make modest payments to surviving slave laborers, and to refugees who were denied access to Switzerland. The Court appointed Professor Neuborne to serve as lead settlement counsel in the Swiss bank cases. The NYU Law connection also involves Melvyn I. Weiss, a distinguished alumnus, who was the chief negotiator and one of the driving forces behind the litigation.
Professor Neuborne was also involved in a second set of cases to gain compensation from German companies for persons forced to perform slave labor during WWII. By 1944, more than half the German labor force consisted of involuntary laborers, drawn from concentration camps and from conquered lands. Despite the blatantly unlawful nature of the slavery, German companies had declined to pay compensation to the workers, arguing that it was the responsibility of the German government. The German government declined responsibility, arguing that it was up to the companies to compensate their wartime work force. After 50 years of neglect, over 50 lawsuits were filed against German companies. Professor Neuborne argued the principal cases. At the urging of President Clinton and Chancellor Schroeder, the parties engaged in an unprecedented international negotiation, lasting 18 months and involving private lawyers, corporate executives, government officials and victims’ groups. The negotiations culminated in July, 2000 in the establishment in Berlin of a 10 billion DM German Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future” designed to pay compensation to Holocaust victims. In the first year of its operation, the German Foundation distributed almost 3 billion DM to 600,000 Holocaust survivors.

http://www.nyuiilj.org/about/activities.html

I assure you that I did not earn, nor world I have accepted, one cent for the work I did, and I am sure the people with whom I worked felt the same.

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@Startup - I'm not too familiar with this case, but it seems to me that the Holocaust Victim's case and the Slavery Reparations cases are quite different. The Holocause Victim's case, if limited to the Swiss banks, is more a case of contracts and property; the banks were entrusted with the (stolen) property of German Jews and their ancestors simply went to reclaim the property of their ancestors.

The Slavery Reparations case is seeking damages for injury. My legalese isn't good enough to put the right words to it, but aren't these different areas of law altogether?

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In this country, we don't need reasons to make things legal; we need reasons to make things illegal. - Startup