The first lawsuits were filed on Wednesday by victims of a spectacular heist of a German bank in December when burglars used the quiet Christmas period to drill their way into its vault and make off with millions, a lawyer said.
The lawyer, Daniel Kuhlmann, said three cases were lodged in a court in Essen, Germany, holding the bank liable for damages for what he called lax security.
Masked thieves last month accessed a branch of a savings bank in the western city of Gelsenkirchen through a parking garage, allowing them to bore into a vault with thousands of safety deposit boxes, police have said.
The episode shocked Germany and made headlines internationally.
The court in Essen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bank, Sparkasse Gelsenkirchen, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has said itself was a victim of the crime and that its premises was "secured in accordance with recognised state-of-the-art technology".
Among the lawsuits filed on Wednesday, one of the victims was a retired person who had stored cash from the sale of an apartment that totalled nearly 400,000 euros ($480,000), Kuhlmann said.
Another is a CEO of a medium-sized company who had stored cash, jewellery and a Rolex watch valued at around 120,000 euros, the lawyer said. The third victim had stored gold with a value of around 50,000 euros, he said.
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