Supreme Court takes up suit from Holocaust victims seeking compensation from Hungary

By CNN Newsource

Published June 24, 2024 6:49 AM

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to revisit a long-running lawsuit filed by the families of Holocaust survivors seeking compensation from Hungary and a state-run railway for property seized from Jewish victims in the 1940s.

The case questions how far parties must go to prove that property seized during World War II has a commercial connection to the United States that would allow the plaintiffs to bring their case in US courts.

The high court has looked at the issue before, in 2021, wiping away lower court decisions that had gone in favor of Holocaust victims.

Generally, federal law grants immunity to foreign governments so that they cannot be sued except in a number of narrow circumstances. One of those exceptions allows plaintiffs to sue in cases where their property was taken in violation of international law and the proceeds have a “commercial nexus” with the Untied States.

A court in Washington, DC, sided with the plaintiffs in the case.

The cases are on appeal from an appeals court in Washington that sided with the plaintiffs in one case and with Hungary in the other.