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Slave descendents sue British insurance company

The World Today
Reporter: Nick Grimm

30 March, 2004 - HAMISH ROBERTSON: In a case set to test the bounds of the legal definition of "pain and suffering", the American descendents of Africans forced into slavery have launched a legal action against the British insurance company, Lloyds of London.

The multi-billion dollar claim in the US courts alleges that Lloyds conspired with the American tobacco company RJ Reynolds, and the banking group Fleetboston Financial Corporation in "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide".

The descendents want to be compensated for the loss of cultural identity inflicted as a result of the slave trade.

And, as Nick Grimm reports, here in Australia, indigenous groups are watching the case with interest.

(Audio excerpt from Roots American TV series: "Now you listen to old (inaudible) if you wants to keep alive. You in America now… You in America.")

NICK GRIMM: The landmark American television miniseries, Roots, depicted the family story common to many Americans. By some estimates, 35 million people living in the United States are descended from the Africans transported to the new world by slave traders in the 1700s and 1800s.

Now some of those descendants are claiming reparations for what they say is the ongoing pain caused by the legacy of slavery – the loss of personal and cultural identity.

(Audio excerpt from Roots)

ACTOR 1: Kunta, Kunta Kinte.

ACTOR 2: Oh, no that's your African name. Master give you a new name. Master say "new name, Toby."

DEADRIA FARMER-PAELLMANN: Let me just say that the injury that we're focusing on is the loss of our… the destruction of our ethnic and national groups.

NICK GRIMM: Deadria Farmer-Paellmann is one of the claimants. She explained the motives behind the law suit to CNN.

DEADRIA FARMER-PAELLMANN: African-Americans today do not know who we are. That is a human right to know who you are. The evidence that we're able to collect is based primarily on DNA research.

There are now DNA tests available where we can determine the precise ethnic and national groups we come from in Africa, so we're able to trace ourselves back to the slave trade and determine who underwrote those slave trading expeditions, which nations, which companies supplied whatever resources necessary to brutally enslave my ancestors?

NICK GRIMM: Similar cases have failed in the American courts in the past, but this lawsuit has gathered more interest because of the lawyer representing the claimants. New York-based attorney Ed Fagan is famous for forcing Swiss banks into a $2 billion settlement on behalf of the holocaust victims of the Nazis. He believes the descendents of America's slaves have a strong case.

ED FAGAN: First they have DNA tests that put them into the specific locations where Lloyds were shipping from. One of my clients actually has one of the manifests and one of the insurance documents where Lloyds insured the ship that this client's ancestors were on.

NICK GRIMM: And while the slavery in some places took place centuries ago, the claimants are targeting those they say, profited from the enterprise. Fleetboston Financial Corporation is accused of financing the trade, and the RJ Reynolds tobacco company is said to have bought the slaves to work in its tobacco fields.

Meanwhile the insurer Lloyds of London has been included in the lawsuit, because it's alleged to have underwritten the trade. The companies have so far declined to comment on the legal action, which has been filed in the US District Court.

Deadria Farmer-Paellmann again.

DEADRIA FARMER-PAELLMANN: Millions of Africans were enslaved. Many never made it to the Americas, they were lost in the sea, their bodies dumped because Lloyds had policies where if you are sick and you make it to the shore, if you die on the shore, you don't get compensation for the enslaved African.

NICK GRIMM: Here in Australia the case has struck a chord with Indigenous Australians already engaged in preparing their own class action against the New South Wales Government over the issue of so-called "stolen wages", income that was held in trust for Aboriginal workers over decades and never distributed to its rightful owners.

RICK GRIFFITHS: In this current case now, that would ensure if successful, our people would be able to latch onto that and use that in the international arena also. You know, we're looking forward to the outcome.

NICK GRIMM: New South Wales ATSIC Commissioner Rick Griffiths.

RICK GRIFFITHS: While there are no similarities with our cultural ties and things like that, but they were totally dispossessed and moved from their countries also, you know, moved out of their country, and I think that the similarities are that our people have been… well, clearly there was an invasion here and our people were dispossessed.

Then they were made to work, you know, for minimal amounts of money and then they didn't get access to that money, so you know, their descendants could claim that while the State Government owes it to their grandparents or whatever, other members of their family, they could rightfully claim.

And if this case is successful, our people could claim that they are also entitled to the monies that are owed to their parents and grandparents, and I believe rightly so.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: The New South Wales ATSIC Commissioner Rick Griffiths ending that report by Nick Grimm.

Source: ABC

Slave descendants to sue Lloyd's

Claims lawyer Edward Fagan filed a multi-billion dollar suit against top Swiss and U.S. banks for providing funds to the South African apartheid government between 1985 and 1993. African slaves

29 March, 2004 - Descendants of black American slaves are to sue Lloyd's of London for insuring ships used in the trade.

High-profile US lawyer Edward Fagan, who secured settlements from Swiss companies in the Nazi gold case, is taking the action for 10 plaintiffs.

He says by underwriting slave ships in the 1700-1800s the UK's oldest insurance firm played a key role.

The action, which claims defendants still suffer, was lodged on Monday according to Associated Press.

The American plaintiffs have produced DNA evidence they say links them with ancestors on recorded slave ships which sailed between Africa and the United States.

One says he has the insurance documents from when Lloyd's of London underwrote the ship his ancestors were on.

Mr Fagan is heading the action against several parties including Lloyd's.

He forced Swiss companies into a £1.25bn settlement on behalf of Nazi victims and is also leading a claim against companies for their role in South Africa under apartheid.

He told the BBC: "Lloyd's was one of the spokes in a hub-and-spoke conspiracy.

"Lloyd's knew what they were doing led to the destruction of indigenous populations.

"They took people, put them on board ships and wiped out their identities."

He denied events were too far in the past.

"There's ongoing injuries that these people suffer from.

"Why is it too far fetched to say blacks should be entitled to compensation for damages and genocide committed against them, when every other group in the world that has been victimised in this way has been?"

But Kofi Klu, a campaigner on slavery and reparations to the descendants of slaves, told the BBC he believed the legal action could be counter-productive.

"We have to make sure that the focus does not shift from the broad, deeper understanding of reparations to just one of financial compensation," he said.

"We see action for reparations more as an educational issue of bringing masses of people into the fight against racism - and racism is the direct product of historical and contemporary enslavement."

Lloyd's was founded in 17th Century London dockside coffee houses by Edward Lloyd.

It provided cover for merchants taking slaves and goods between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean at a time when many vessels sank or fell victim to pirates.

Britain abolished slavery in the 1830s and the US followed 30 years later.

During the trade more than 10 million people are estimated to have been traded at West African ports and herded on to slave ships.

One plaintiff, Deadria Farmer-Paellman said the slave trade denied her identity.

"Today I suffer from the injury of not knowing who I am, having no nationality or ethnic group as a result of acts committed by these parties," she said.

Lawyers in the UK have welcomed the case.

Barrister Lincoln Crawford OBE chairs the Home Office working party on slavery and is a member of the Race Equality Advisory Panel.

He said it highlighted an important event that "cannot be glossed over".

"There is no doubt that slavery was a crime against humanity and for a lot of black people the consequences of slavery still exist today."

He said it was hard to see how they would win but added, "I would like them to".

Lawyer Fraser Whitehead, the Law Society's former head of civil litigation, said the case was not about "compensation culture".

It would be hard to prove that by insuring the merchants, Lloyd's supported the trade, he said.

"It's a bit like saying the manufacturer of guns facilitated the killing."

A Lloyds spokeswoman said: "We haven't seen this claim, so we are not in a position to comment.

"Previous claims regarding slavery involving Lloyd's have been dismissed without prejudice."

Source: BBC

Further information:

• Anti-Slavery International
• Stolen wages news and information
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