Insurance Day
September 23, 2004

IN BRIEF

Armenians on board

CALIFORNIA insurance commissioner John Garamendi has made three
appointments to the Armenian Insurance Settlement Fund Board. The new
board members Viken Manjikian, Paul Krekorian, and Berj Boyajian will
evaluate claims against New York Life Insurance Co, relating to the
settlement of a class-action lawsuit on behalf of heirs and
descendants of policyholders who were killed in the Armenian genocide
more than 90 years ago. Mr Garamendi secured a $20m fund to help make
payment of claims in this case earlier this year, following a
compromise by New York Life. The settlement relates to an estimated
2,300 policies sold by the insurer to Armenians living in the Ottoman
Empire in the late 1800s and early 1900s. From April 1915 onwards,
many of these policyholders were among the 1.5m slaughtered in
attacks on Armenians within the empire.