Slave-labor case against Ford tossed

U.S. courts cannot intervene, judges rule

ASSOCIATED PRESS
14 September 1999

NEWARK, N.J. -- Reparation demands for Nazi-era slave labor cannot be handled by U.S. courts, two federal judges ruled Monday in dismissing lawsuits seeking compensation from Ford Motor Co. and two German companies.

The lawsuit against Ford was dismissed because the claims exceed time limits imposed under German and U.S. law and because Germany has not allowed individual claims, U.S. District Judge Joseph Greenaway Jr. ruled. "Although courts are not bound by a foreign government's pronouncement of which claims are cognizable," international customs "dictate that a court not interfere with a foreign sovereign's pronouncement of its law," Greenaway wrote.

In a separate ruling on the cases involving the German companies, Degussa AG and Siemens AG, U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise said postwar treaties leave the question of payments to victims for nations to decide.

Debevoise said "to structure a reparations scheme would be to express the ultimate lack of respect" for the U.S. government leaders who ratified those pacts.

The companies applauded the rulings.

"The dismissal of this lawsuit should accelerate governmental efforts to provide relief to those who were exploited by the Nazi regime," said Ford spokeswoman Lydia Cisaruk.

Siemens attorney Thomas D. Yannucci said the company has "always believed that these claims, serious as they are, shouldn't be part of lawsuits." That company will continue to pay claims to laborers through its Humanitarian Fund, which has paid millions of dollars to date, said Yannucci, adding that the company regrets its wartime conduct.

Degussa, which recently became Degussa-Huels AG, said in a statement that the dismissal confirmed the opinion of Degussa and other German companies. "Without regard to this decision, Degussa-Huels AG, in awareness of its historical responsibility, will further actively take part in the foundation initiative of German industry, 'Remembrance, Responsibility and Future,' " the statement added.

The initiative refers to ongoing talks among victims' advocates, governments and 16 German companies to create a fund to compensate slave laborers.

The companies, including Degussa and Siemens as well as DaimlerChrysler AG, Bayer and other major industrial concerns, agreed to establish the fund to quash class-action suits filed in the United States on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people forced to work for the Nazi war machine.

An expert retained by the German government estimated that 2.2 million people survive today of those pressed into slave or forced labor under the Nazis. Most are not Jews but citizens of nations overrun by Germany.

The lawsuit against Ford charged that senior U.S. executives knew that up to 10,000 workers were being abused at its Ford Werke plant in Germany.

Ford maintains the plant had been seized, along with other American interests, after Germany declared war on the United States and that Ford lost contact with the plant until the war ended.

The judges agreed that foreign policy was not their realm.