The Illinois Northern District Court 28 September 2017 rejected the lawsuit in the case of Lalich et al. v. Republic of Croatia after four hearings on formal preconditions for instituting the dispute.
The lawsuit was filed end-May 2016 by a group of plaintiffs, demanding from Croatia 3.5 billion dollars in compensation for allegedly stolen property from Croatian Jews, Serbs and Roma during the Second World War.
Even though the lawsuit was dismissed before a hearing on the merit of the dispute, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs would like to reiterate that, as clearly stated in the Historical Foundations of the Croatian Constitution, the Republic of Croatia is not a successor of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and as such cannot be held responsible for the crimes committed during that period.