Supporters of Chuck Quackenbush’s “tenacity” on Holocaust-era insurance issues expressed confidence that his resignation will not put a crimp in California’s effort to corral uncooperative European insurers.
“It’s the whole team that has been active, not just him individually,” said Leslie Tick, senior staff counsel with the state’s Department of Insurance. “We will continue along with the same aggressive stances that we’ve always taken.”
Although four deputy commissioners and two other top officials close to Quackenbush resigned last week, Deputy Commissioner Dan Edwards, Quackenbush’s right-hand man in dealing with European insurance companies, remains on the job.
For that reason and others, attorney Frank Kaplan said Quackenbush’s resignation as insurance commissioner “is not going to have any effect at all” on the state’s campaign.
“We’re going to continue pursuing these companies as vigorously as before,” added Kaplan, one of the lead attorneys used by the Department of Insurance.
Edwards didn’t return repeated phone messages.
Quackenbush, who stepped down this week rather than face almost certain impeachment, drew plaudits for his aggressive pursuit of European insurers that refused to pay claims and disclose pre-World War II policy-holder lists.
In fact, after he announced his resignation June 28, about the only words of praise for him were from Holocaust survivors and activists.
Jona Goldrich, chairman of a special Holocaust committee formed by Quackenbush, told a Los Angeles reporter that the former commissioner did “an excellent job for the Jewish community and we will miss him.”
Another survivor, Arthur Stern of Beverly Hills, said “there may be other areas that he can be criticized for,” but when it came to his dogged efforts to pursue Holocaust-era insurers, “we always stood on his side.”
Goldrich chairs the California Holocaust Insurance Settlement Alliance, a group formed by Quackenbush 15 months ago to help identify California claimants.
Stern is also a member of the alliance, as is Rabbi Abraham Cooper, a dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Cooper said California actions, such as getting three Dutch insurers to agree to place $4.2 million into a fund for the state’s indigent Holocaust survivors, have been “due in large measure to [Quackenbush’s] tenacity.”
Cooper said that Quackenbush was leading a more effective push than even the International Commission of Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims. He called him “the only person in this entire process that has stood up for the individual victims and their heirs.”
Si Frumkin, who joins Cooper on the alliance’s executive committee, called Quackenbush’s resignation “tragic for the Jews.”
Nevertheless, survivors, lawyers and DOIofficials expressed confidence that the fight will go on.
Stern said he expects Gov. Gray Davis will “make sure the interest of survivors will be safeguarded” when he appoints a new commissioner to serve through 2002.
Clark Kelso, a Sacramento legal scholar, was named interim commissioner last week.
“Whoever comes in,” Tick said, “I will advise that they continue along the same course. And I can’t imagine that it would change since the governor and the attorney general [Bill Lockyer] and everyone else is interested in being very aggressive on this issue.”
However, Kaplan did express some concern.
“I’m sure the new commissioner will have a lot to do, and [Holocaust-era insurance matters] may or may not be this person’s top priority,” Kaplan said.
In any case, the state’s hands are somewhat tied right now.
Last month, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction barring California from enforcing its new Holocaust Registry Law, which calls for revoking the state license of companies that don’t submit pre-World War II policy-holders lists.
The state has appealed the injunction and a hearing is expected in September or October.
The injunction stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a host of insurance companies seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional.
Quackenbush’s resignation will have no effect on that law or the judge’s eventual ruling, nor will it cost California its seat on the international Holocaust-era insurance commission.
In fact, Tick will attend a meeting of that body scheduled for next week.
The commission has more than once scolded the state for playing by its own rules in chasing down Holocaust-era insurers, which some people cite as a testimonial to Quackenbush.
“We’re a thorn in their side,” Tick said. “They’ve tried to exclude us from the decision-making because we’ve been so aggressive in fighting on behalf of the policy-holders.”