1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910953604303321

Autore

Schapiro Jane <1956->

Titolo

Inside a class action : the Holocaust and the Swiss banks / / Jane Schapiro

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Madison, Wis., : University of Wisconsin Press/Terrace Books, c2003

ISBN

9786612269448

9781282269446

1282269445

9780299193331

0299193330

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 292 p. )

Disciplina

347.73/53

Soggetti

Unjust enrichment - United States

Trials - New York (State) - New York

Class actions (Civil procedure) - New York (State) - New York

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)

Banks and banking, Swiss

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-286) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Winds of truth -- Looking back -- Plaintiffs speak -- The devil's bridge  -- An uneasy alliance -- A rough calculation -- Arguments and motions -- The hearing -- Stucki's ghost -- A victim's fund -- A separate peace -- Money dance -- An accounting -- The reckoning.

Sommario/riassunto

On October 21, 1996, attorney Michael Hausfeld, with a team of lawyers, filed a class-action complaint against Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation, and Credit Suisse on behalf of Holocaust victims. The suit accused the banks of, among other things, acting as the chief financiers for Nazi Germany. Hausfeld wanted to use the suit to prove that the banks not only concealed and refused to return millions of dollars in dormant accounts, but that they acted as a conduit for looted assets and slave labor profits. Such behavior, he charged, violated the code of ethics known as customary international law. On August 12, 1998, the plaintiffs and banks reached a $1.25



billion settlement. Through interviews with a wide range of people involved in the case and detailed research of documents and court transcripts, Jane Schapiro shows the ways that egos, personalities, and values clash in such a complex and emotionally charged case. Inside a Class Action provides an insider's view of a major lawsuit from its inception to its conclusion, which will appeal to anyone interested in human rights, reparations, and international law.