Mitsubishi Materials Corp. v. Superior Court

Prologue

Our original opinion in this matter was filed February 6, 2003. The California Supreme Court granted review on April 30, 2003. While the case was pending before that court, the United States Supreme Court handed down American Ins. Ass’n v. Garamendi (2003) 539 U.S. 396 [ 156 L.Ed.2d 376 , 123 S.Ct. 2374 ]. The Garamendi case held that California’s Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act was unconstitutional, because it conflicted with express federal policy concerning the recovery of insurance proceeds confiscated by Nazi Germany. In light of Garamendi, the California Supreme Court transferred this case back to this court, with instructions to vacate our earlier decision and reconsider the matter in light of the federal court’s Garamendi opinion.

The interim has also given us the benefit of Deutsch v. Turner Corp. (9th Cir. 2003) 324 F.3d 692 , a Ninth Circuit decision holding that the very law at issue before us—which allows former American POW’s forced to do slave labor for Japanese companies during World War II to sue those companies—is unconstitutional because it intrudes on the federal government’s power to make and resolve war claims. (See id. at p. 712.)…