Government plans to file legal motion to have property case dismissed
Government lawyers plan this week to submit a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed in a New York court that alleges the government conspired to seize property from Jews in the post-war period.
Attorneys with White and Case said they expect to submit the motion
Dec. 22. The case against the government was filed this June in U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn by 11 Polish Jews seeking property restitution.
Witold Danilowicz, a partner at White and Case, said the motion to dismiss the New York claim would be based on the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, under which U.S. courts don't have jurisdiction to hear suits against independent states.
The government attorneys are hoping their motion will meet with the same success that a similar legal argument received in a similar case that had been filed in Chicago.
In that case, U.S. Federal Judge Milton Shadura agreed with the government that the court did not have jurisdiction over the matter. The Chicago case had been filed by a group of Polish-American Jews against Poland, the Treasury Ministry and two insurance companies, Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU) and Warta. It also sought the return of property seized by Polish authorities after World War II, referring to land taken over by the Nazis in Lower Silesia, at that time part of the Third Reich. The two insurance companies were sued for blocking compensation payments on the basis of pre-war contracts.
While the lawsuits may not meet with success in the courts, they have highlighted the issue of property restitution and the lack of progress made on the issue by successive governments since 1989. The return of property nationalized after World War II to thousands of pre-war Polish owners hasn't yet happened despite restitution being one of the chief electoral promises by Solidarity Election Action (AWS). Under a restitution bill, accepted by the government but stalled in the Sejm, pre-war owners are entitled to get back only 50% of their property in kind or in the form of privatization coupons.
In response to the government's plans to partially compensate pre-war property owners, lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the New York claim announced that they would not rest until they saw justice done. As a result, they've started a political campaign to pressure Poland to completely restore property stolen from Polish Jewry during and after World War II.
In October, a letter from 58 U.S. congressional representatives was published urging the Polish government to establish an appropriate restitution policy. At the end of November, the New York City Council adopted a resolution that called for the Polish government to provide legislation for the complete restitution of assets seized by the Nazis and nationalized by communist Poland after the Holocaust.
