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Overview:

An independent agency within the Department of Justice, FCSC has been settling claims U.S. Nationals have against foreign governments since 1954.

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History:

FCSC was established as a result of the Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1954, through which President Eisenhower transferred the functions of the War Claims Commission and International Claims Commission to FCSC. The War Claims Commission had been created as a temporary agency by the War Claims Act of 1948, to settle claims of former U.S. World War II prisoners of war and civilian internees captured, or in hiding to avoid capture, in places like the Philippines, and, in the case of prisoners of war, in Germany and other Axis countries.

From 1949 to April 1, 1954, approximately $134 million was paid to claimants as a result of determinations by the War Claims Commission. The International Claims Commission, established within the Department of the State by the International Claims Settlement Act of 1949, was at first just responsible for adjudicating claims involving the Yugoslav government. But it was authorized to also handle future similar claims between the U.S. and other foreign governments, and from 1950 to April 1, 1954 it settled 531 various claims. In total, the three commissions together have adjudicated more than 660,000 claims, with awards amounting to billions of dollars.

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What it Does:

A quasi-judicial agency, FCSC determines the validity and monetary value of claims by U. S. Nationals for loss or damage of property, or personal injury, in foreign countries. The claims it addresses fall either under specific jurisdiction conferred by Congress, or in accordance with international claims settlement agreements, and the funds for payment come out of congressional appropriations, international claim settlements, or liquidation of foreign assets in the U.S. by the Department of Justice or the Treasury.

To date, FCSC and its predecessors have compiled and administered 43 international and war-related claims programs against more than a dozen countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, West Germany, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Panama, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, Vietnam and Yugoslavia. There was also a claims program for some U.S. citizen survivors of the Holocaust, and FCSC is currently engaged in preliminary planning for a possible future program involving claims against Iraq.

From the Website of FCSC

Annual Reports

Albania Claims Program

Cuban Claims Program

Electronic Reading Room

Holocaust Claims Program

How to Contact FCSC

Other Claims, Related Functions

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Comments

almudznie abubakar 1 year ago

sir. we ask you something for about of our late father was received a claim card in 1953 by the us war claim commission in philippines.this award never been claim by the owner.we received an email from your good office last year you said expired in 1955. now can the fcsc granting us to become a us citizen?

Paula Costabile 2 years ago

Foreign Claims Agency Victim of Crime in Mexico concerning Faud I have a detail letter and need to know who to send it too. Have been trying to obtain legal help for six months unsuccessfully. I appreciate if you can help in a direct or indirect manner, time is very important in this issue. Sincerely Paula Costabile

Machele Jones 4 years ago

Looking for a document, US State Department Foreign Claims Division - 1991 stating restitution claims are still outstanding for Irene Schmolka (deceased) - regarding property in former Czechoslovakia. The form (#CZ 4727 J) was in care of Leo Schmolka. How do we obtain a copy of the lost document?

Table of Contents
Overview
History
What it Does
Where Does the Money Go
Controversies
Suggested Reforms
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Founded: 1954

Annual Budget: $1.8 million (2009)

Employees: 9

Official Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/fcsc/

Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC)

Feighery, Timothy

Chairman

Fresh off his election victory, President Barack Obama has opted for continuity in the leadership of a little-known independent agency within the Department of Justice that settles claims that Americans have against foreign governments. On November 15, Obama nominated Timothy J. Feighery to continue serving as Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC), a position he has held since March 21, 2011. Feighery, who succeeded Rafael Martinez, saw his term expire on September 30.

Born in 1962 in the Bronx, New York, Feighery earned a B.A. in Philosophy in 1984 and a J.D. in 1987, both from Fordham University. During law school he also worked at a family-owned bar/restaurant in Carmel, N.Y., from 1984 to 1986. After graduating law school and passing the New York bar exam, Feighery practiced law as an associate at Kaye Scholer, LLP in New York, Brussels, Belgium, and Washington, D.C., from May 1986 to December 1995.

Feighery left private practice for public service as a team leader at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, established to address claims arising out of Iraq’s 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. He served as a team leader from February 1996 to July 1998, and later returned to serve as chief of section of the Legal Services Branch from January 2000 to August 2003. In between his two stints in Geneva, Feighery served as a senior attorney in the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission, where he worked from August 1998 to December 1999.

Upon his return from Geneva, from August 2003 to July 2004 Feighery was a deputy special master for the Justice Department’s September 11, 2001, Victim Compensation Fund, where he was responsible for assessing claims made by victims of the 9/11 attacks. From July 2004 until his 2011 appointment to the FCSC, Feighery served as an attorney adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, where he represented U.S. interests in international arbitration and foreign investment disputes.

Feighery served as co-vice chair of the American Bar Association Committee on International Courts from 2008 to 2010. He taught International Law and European Union Law as an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law from August 2005 to May 2010, and taught Business Law at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1997.

Feighery and his wife Sarah have three children: Finn, Teddy and Anne. He contributed $250 to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

-Matt Bewig

Official Biography

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Martinez, Rafael

Previous Chairman

Rafael E. “Ralph” Martinez has served as a part-time commissioner on the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission since his appointment in 2008 by President George W. Bush. He was sworn in on May 28, 2008. His term expires September 30, 2010.

Martinez was born in Cuba to Gladys V. Ruíz and Melquíades C. Martínez. He and his older brother, Melquíades Rafael Martínez Ruiz (or Mel), fled Cuba and eventually wound up in Orlando, Florida. Mel Martinez went on to become the first Latino to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee, as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (under Bush) and as Republican U.S. senator from Florida.

Ralph Martinez received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida in 1973, and his Juris Doctorate from Florida State University in 1976.

He began practicing law in Florida in 1977, embarking on a 30-year career as a civil litigator who handled cases in the Sunshine State and before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has specialized in defending doctors against malpractice lawsuits.

Martinez is currently the managing partner of McEwan, Martinez & Dukes, P.A.

In 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Martínez to serve as the U.S. representative on the Organization American States’ (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but, in an unprecedented action, the OAS rejected the nomination. This was seen both as a rebuke of the Bush administration’s own human rights violations and of Martínez as someone without qualifications for the position.

Bush then chose Martinez to be a public delegate representing the United States before the United Nations 57th General Assembly.

Martinez’s professional activities have included serving as a member of the Inter–American Bar Association (1979–present); the Ninth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission (1990–1994; commission chair, 1993–1994); board of directors of the Health Law Section of the Florida Bar (1992–1997); Fifth District Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Commission (1995–1999); American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) Central Florida Chapter (1996–present; president, 2004); International Association of Defense Counsel; Products Liability Committee (1996–present); Pharmaceutical Medical Device and Biotechnology Committee (1996–present); Judicial Relations Committee chairman (1997–1998); Orange County Bar Association, Professionalism Committee chairman (1999–2000); Medical Defense Committee chair (2000–2001); IADC Trial Academy faculty, Stanford University (2004); and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

He has also served as SunTrust South Orlando Administrative Board Chairman (1988-2000); on the Orlando Regional Healthcare Foundation Board of Directors (1989-Present); Chairman of the Metropolitan YMCA for Central Florida (1992-1994); Central Florida Fair Association (1999-Present); CNL Bank Board of Directors (2002-Present); and the YMCA of the U.S.A. National Board Nominating Committee (2003-Present).

Martinez has contributed to the campaigns of numerous Republican candidates, including Lamar Alexander, George W. Bush, Bill McCollum, Rick Santorum and…his brother, Mel Martinez.

Martinez and his wife, Rebecca, have two daughters and a son.

Commissioner Rafael E. Martinez (Foreign Claims Settlement Commission)

Rafael E. Martinez (McEwan, Martinez & Dukes)

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Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC)

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