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			New York Life Settles Armenian Genocide Case for $20 Million: African Slavery Case Still Waiting for Justice
				TAKE ACTION! Let New York Life know that you believe that justice for one requires justice for all ! (click here for more details)

     The Black plaintiffs in the African slavery case entitled, In Re: African American Slave
Descendants or MDL: 1491, claim that New York Life owes restitution for its role in a crime
against humanity committed against their ancestors.  In particular, they claim that in the 1800s,
New York Life wrote life insurance policies on the lives of their enslaved ancestors with slave
owners as the beneficiaries.  The effect of this practice was to help maintain slavery by giving
slave owners the security to further engage in the brutal practice of enslavement which entailed:
kidnapping, forcing immigration, ethnic cleansing, raping, torturing, breeding and forcing
uncompensated labor out of Africans.  Further, these types of policies encouraged the
employment of enslaved people in ultra-hazardous capacities, such as coal mining, or
constructing railroads, which sometimes resulted in horrific burning and drowning deaths.

     The White plaintiffs in the Armenian genocide case (Marootian v. New York Life Insurance
Company) claimed that New York Life wrongfully failed to pay benefits under life insurance
policies they issued as far back as the 1870s in the Turkish Ottoman Empire on the lives of
persons of Armenian descent.

     With respect to the Black plaintiff’s claims, New York Life does not deny writing the slave
insurance policies.  California's Slavery Era Insurance Law required that they report on all such
slave polices they wrote, and they did so on May 1, 2002.  However, New York Life refused to pay
restitution for their role in the human rights crime of slavery.

     With respect to the White plaintiffs, as per Armenian settlement papers of August 2004, New
York Life denies all wrongdoing, yet they chose to settle that lawsuit in the amount of $20 million.

     Slave descendants believe that the disparity in New York Life Insurance Company's actions is
alarming.  It is reminiscent of the Jim Crow policy of WHITES ONLY!  Justice requires that the
company act in a matter consistent with fairness and equality.  

       Justice for one, justice for all !