claims resolution tribunal - Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss ...

The CRT notes that the other claims to these accounts were disconfirmed because that claimant
provided a different profession or city or country of residence than the profession and city and
country of residence of the Account Owners.
Status of the Account Owners as a Victim of Nazi Persecution
The Claimant has made a plausible showing that the Account Owners were Victims of Nazi
Persecution. The Claimant stated that the Account Owners were Jewish, that they resided in
Austria after its incorporation into the German Reich in March 1938 (the Anschluss ), that their
family business was aryanized, and that Account Owner Paul Mayer and Account Owner
Theodor Meyer were imprisoned by the Nazis in November 1938. The CRT notes that the
Account Owners were required to register their assets pursuant to the 1938 Census.
The Claimant s Relationship to the Account Owners
The Claimant has plausibly demonstrated that he is related to the Account Owners by submitting
specific information and documents, demonstrating that the Account Owners were the
Claimant s grandparents, his grandfather s brother, and his family s business. These documents
include: 1) an excerpt from a publication regarding the history of the M. E. Mayer Company
indicating that Paul Mayer, Paul Mayer s son, Stephen H. Mayer, and Stephen s son, Gay A.
Mayer, each led the company in turn; 2) Paul M. E. Mayer s obituary indicating that his wife was
Renée A. Mayer and his son was Stephan H. Mayer; 3) a legal document dated 21 January 1948,
indicating that Stephen H. Mayer served as the executor of the late Paul E. Mayer s estate; 4)
Stephen Mayer s will listing his children Gay A. Mayer and Laurette M. Beach among his heirs
and; 5) a court order dated 7 February 1990 indicating that Gay A. Mayer served as a co-personal
representative of the estate of Stephen H. Mayer.
There is no information to indicate that the Account Owners have other surviving heirs other
than the party whom the Claimant is representing.
The Issue of Who Received the Proceeds
Given that the Account Owners resided in Austria after the Anschluss, that assets belonging to
Account Owner M.E. Mayer were declared to Nazi authorities in the 1938 Census, that there is
no record of the payment of the Account Owners accounts to them nor any record of a date of
closure of the accounts; that the Account Owners and their heirs would not have been able to
obtain information about their accounts after the Second World War from the Bank due to the
Swiss banks practice of withholding or misstating account information in their responses to
inquiries by account owners because of the banks concern regarding double liability; and given
the application of Presumptions (h)and (j), as provided in Article 28 of the Rules Governing the
Claims Resolution Process, as amended (the Rules ) (see Appendix A), the CRT concludes that
it is plausible that the account proceeds were not paid to the Account Owners, the Power of
Attorney Holder, or their heirs. Based on its precedent and the Rules, the CRT applies
presumptions to assist in the determination of whether or not Account Owners or their heirs
received the proceeds of their accounts.
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