from the article
""Jonas Savimbi is portrayed as a ‘barbarian’ in Call of Duty: Black Ops II say three of his children who seek €1m damages""

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/14/call-of-duty-publisher-sued-by-family-of-angolan-rebel

wonder how this pans out

Seems like a defamation suit. They'll have to prove this depiction caused this person to be regarded with less esteem by society to get the money............if France's defamation laws are close to British Common Law and the court refuses to see it as social commentary / journalism. If its looser, they may actually get it.
It seems they used an actual person, name and all in the game, which is risky, especially since they didn't seem to use a model release or anything of that kind proving consent on the depicted person's part.

Interesting. Can't quite imagine that they will win the case, then again, they seem to be pretty clever suing specifically Activision's French branch. This calls for some popcorn.

In a related story the estate of Albert Einstein is suing the makers of Red Alert 2 for making Albert look like an incompetent dork.

Did any similar cases happen in the history of gaming?

Stupid for me to say this but.....

HE WAS REAL?!