US law firm Baker Botts turns down MÁV Holocaust suit

US law firm Baker Botts has turned down a request by Hungarian railways MAV to defend the company in a lawsuit filed by heirs of Holocaust survivors with a Chicago court, the daily Nepszabadsag reported on Wednesday.

The paper cited Baker Botts press chief Mike Cinelli, who declined to comment on his firm's decision.

Ninety-five heirs of the survivors filed a lawsuit against MAV in early February in Chicago. The plaintiffs, who are mostly descendants of Hungarian Holocaust survivors living in Israel and the US, are demanding compensation worth a total of 1.24 billion dollars.

Based on nine years of research, they claim that MAV provided its carriages "fully aware" that these would be used to transport 437,000 Jews to the gas chambers in Auschwitz between March and October 1944.

Last month, the court in Chicago scheduled the first hearing for April 22.

MAV invited 13 US-based law firms to submit bids to provide defence as legal representative for MAV in the court.

The paper on Friday reported that Baker Botts had been chosen by MAV ahead of competitors White and Case and Reczicza.

MAV has concluded a contract with White and Case and started preparations for the lawsuit, the company told MTI on Wednesday. The official documents on the claim the plaintiffs submitted to the Chicago court on February 9 have already been received from the Justice Ministry, MAV said, adding that it had 60 days to put forward an official position in the case.

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