WASHINTON, DC. - The U.S. Supreme Court, today, announced that it will not review a Ninth Circuit Court decision which struck down a California law extending the statute of limitations on Armenian Genocide-era insurance claims cases, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). 

The Supreme Courts decision not to review the case lets stand a lower court decision which effectively prevents U.S. citizens from pursuing redress for unpaid insurance claims by using the rarely invoked foreign affairs pre-emption doctrine. 

Plaintiffs’ attorney and Armenian Americans groups expressed dismay about the Supreme Court decision and a commitment to continue efforts to secure justice for genocide-era victims and their heirs. 

The Armenian Genocide-era insurance claims case has traveled a long and complex legal path, which has included three separate and conflicting opinions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most recent on February 23, 2012. That decision struck down the California law extending the statute of limitations for certain life insurance claims based on an unprecedented expansion of the rarely invoked doctrine of foreign affairs field preemption. Defendant Munich Re, a German insurance company, is represented by Neil Soltman of Mayer Brown’s Los Angeles office.