Decision no. 461/2009

In 1938 the area, which had been united as one property with an area of 261 m², was owned by Anna E., a Jew. As she had been forced by the National Socialist regime to flee Austria, she sold the property in February 1939 for 3,500 Reichsmark to its tenant, the Master Builder Franz K. He had already used the property as a storage area for his building trade until this time. Shortly after the sale, Anna E. emigrated to the USA.

At the end of 1947, from New York, Anna E. claimed the restitution of the property from Franz K. at the Restitution Commission Vienna. She was represented in the restitution proceedings by a Viennese attorney. Just under a year later, Anna E. and Franz K. concluded a settlement in which Anna E. waived the restitution of the property in exchange for a payment of 3,000 Schilling. Consequently, Franz K. remained the owner of the property, which he continued to use as for storage.

After the property had been transferred to another master builder in 1950 it was purchased by the Republic of Austria. The acquired area served to round off a subsequently erected school building in the 20th District of Vienna.

A total of six applicants before the Arbitration Panel requested the restitution of the property with an area of 261 m² which had been split into two register numbers in 1980. Five of the six applications, however, had to be dismissed without further examination of their contents as these applicants were unable to demonstrate their entitlement to succeed Anna E., who had passed away in Vienna in 1976.

June P., one of the three heirs of Anna E., contested the conclusion of a restitution settlement between Anna E. and Franz K. Should the Arbitration Panel not follow this, then the settlement, due to the low settlement amount, must have come about under coercion or even constituted fraud. Thus the settlement was extremely unjust in the meaning of the General Settlement Fund Law. As the settlement between Anna E. and Franz K. is clearly documented in the files and no indications of the exertion of coercion or a case of fraud were able to be found, the Arbitration Panel was also unable to grant the application of June P.