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AXA Inter-Attorney Squabble
asbarez
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
by Garen Yegparian
On Monday, August 8, a hearing took place in Federal Judge Christina
A. Snyder's court in downtown Los Angeles. It was part of the lawsuit
that has pitted against one another attorneys who once jointly fought
the French insurance company, AXA, to secure payment to the heirs of
Genocide victims who had bought life insurance policies from that
company.
This session, postponed from three weeks prior, witnessed the
litigating sides agreeing on some points. Meetings had been held
between the two sides (Mark Geragos/Brian Kabateck vs. Vartkes
Yeghiayan). Geragos and Kabateck spoke for themselves while Yeghiayan
was represented by another attorney, Roman Silberfeld. They
requested, and received, from the judge, more time to continue their
efforts to resolve their differences. Judge Snyder put off until
after October 3, the implementation of subpoenas and discovery.
The sides also agreed that important information was held by Parsegh
Kartalian, the administrator who ran the distribution of the millions
of dollars that AXA was required to pay to the rightful recipients of
the insurance policies' payouts. They had not yet been able to meet
with Kartalian, and requested the court act on this, if necessary
subpoenaing him. Silberfeld went into the greatest details, citing
numerous cases in which claimants had received multiple checks. One
had gotten twelve. Some of these checks remain uncashed to date. The
amounts paid out varied wildly from a little over $100 to over
$200,000. These and other questions are what Kartalian is expected to
provide answers and clarification for.
Also present was an attorney, Boyd, representing the Settlement Board
(SB) that was established to oversee the whole process. Her presence
in court was apparently something new. She stated that the SB also
needed more information and was waiting for documentation from
Kartalian.
Geragos remarked negatively about the participation of the SB in the
proceedings. Judge Snyder commented that the SB did not have as much
authority as it seemed to think it had, and Kartalian must answer to
the court, not the SB. She also remarked that the SB's participation
had been `fomented' by people present in the courtroom `who shall
remain nameless'. The judge was clearly annoyed, saying also that she
was aware `alliances had been formed' and that it `will stop right
now'. The degree to which Snyder was incensed became evident when
said they had set out to do something important for the community, and
instead were confronted by `something very unseemly', presumably
referring to the current state of litigious affairs.
Judge Snyder also displayed concern over the use of funds from the AXA
settlement. In the interest of not wasting funds, she said she did
not want to appoint a receiver and later denied, without prejudice,
the Yeghiayan side's motion for a special master.
The next hearing was scheduled for September 26.
In the interest of full disclosure, my family is an AXA claimant. The
claim was denied. No explanation was given.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
asbarez
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
by Garen Yegparian
On Monday, August 8, a hearing took place in Federal Judge Christina
A. Snyder's court in downtown Los Angeles. It was part of the lawsuit
that has pitted against one another attorneys who once jointly fought
the French insurance company, AXA, to secure payment to the heirs of
Genocide victims who had bought life insurance policies from that
company.
This session, postponed from three weeks prior, witnessed the
litigating sides agreeing on some points. Meetings had been held
between the two sides (Mark Geragos/Brian Kabateck vs. Vartkes
Yeghiayan). Geragos and Kabateck spoke for themselves while Yeghiayan
was represented by another attorney, Roman Silberfeld. They
requested, and received, from the judge, more time to continue their
efforts to resolve their differences. Judge Snyder put off until
after October 3, the implementation of subpoenas and discovery.
The sides also agreed that important information was held by Parsegh
Kartalian, the administrator who ran the distribution of the millions
of dollars that AXA was required to pay to the rightful recipients of
the insurance policies' payouts. They had not yet been able to meet
with Kartalian, and requested the court act on this, if necessary
subpoenaing him. Silberfeld went into the greatest details, citing
numerous cases in which claimants had received multiple checks. One
had gotten twelve. Some of these checks remain uncashed to date. The
amounts paid out varied wildly from a little over $100 to over
$200,000. These and other questions are what Kartalian is expected to
provide answers and clarification for.
Also present was an attorney, Boyd, representing the Settlement Board
(SB) that was established to oversee the whole process. Her presence
in court was apparently something new. She stated that the SB also
needed more information and was waiting for documentation from
Kartalian.
Geragos remarked negatively about the participation of the SB in the
proceedings. Judge Snyder commented that the SB did not have as much
authority as it seemed to think it had, and Kartalian must answer to
the court, not the SB. She also remarked that the SB's participation
had been `fomented' by people present in the courtroom `who shall
remain nameless'. The judge was clearly annoyed, saying also that she
was aware `alliances had been formed' and that it `will stop right
now'. The degree to which Snyder was incensed became evident when
said they had set out to do something important for the community, and
instead were confronted by `something very unseemly', presumably
referring to the current state of litigious affairs.
Judge Snyder also displayed concern over the use of funds from the AXA
settlement. In the interest of not wasting funds, she said she did
not want to appoint a receiver and later denied, without prejudice,
the Yeghiayan side's motion for a special master.
The next hearing was scheduled for September 26.
In the interest of full disclosure, my family is an AXA claimant. The
claim was denied. No explanation was given.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress