On 20 August 2013, the Federal District Court of Chicago terminated various Holocaust related proceedings against the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) and Hungarian State Railways (MÁV). The Court unconditionally dismissed the damages claims on the grounds that the claimants failed to prove the unavailability of appropriate legal remedies in Hungary.

The actions were filed in the United States in 2010 by WWII Nazi terror victims and their heirs for the expropriation of, and failure to return, their property invoking the violation of international law.

The Court disagreed with the claimants’ arguments about the lack of independence in the Hungarian court system or its failure to provide fair proceedings, noting that the claimants’ arguments “were based on pure speculation and unjustified concerns whereby the Hungarian court system would be unable to provide them fair proceedings”. However, these speculative arguments of the claimants were insufficient to override the findings of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals whereby “Hungary is a modern republic and a member of the European Union which must be given the opportunity to consider the claimants’ demands”, and “Hungary should first consider the alleged instances of expropriation of property by the means of its own legal order before they are considered by the courts of the United States”.

In other words, in accordance with the above court findings, the claimants must first seek redress in Hungary before enforcing their claims in the United States.

During the proceedings initiated several years ago, Hungary consistently took the view that its legal order provided Holocaust survivors with appropriate redress, compensation and indemnity benefits.

(Ministry of National Development Communications Department)