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  • World Trade Center Settlement Gets Backing Needed to Take Effect
    – New York Law Journal
    (November 22, 2010) Enough plaintiffs have accepted a massive settlement of claims alleging respiratory and other health problems from the post-9/11 response and cleanup at the World Trade Center site to seal the deal. Read more…

  • 10,563 Ground Zero 9/11 Workers Agree On $625 Million Settlement
    – Medical News Today
    (November 21, 2010) 10,563 ground zero workers who inhaled toxic dust and risked health consequences have agreed on a $625 settlement and ceased suing - the amount could go as high as $815 million.
    Read more…

  • 9/11 Health Deal Gets OK
    – The Wall Street Journal
    (November 20, 2010) More than 95% of Ground Zero workers agreed to accept a settlement of long-running litigation over respiratory diseases and other injuries suffered in recovery operations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
    Read more…

  • Deal settles most lawsuits over WTC toxic dust
    – The Associated Press (AP)
    (November 19, 2010) A deal reached by New York City and workers exposed to toxic dust that blanketed ground zero after Sept. 11 will resolve an overwhelming majority of the lawsuits over the city's failure to provide protective equipment to the responders. Read more…

  • Ground Zero workers exposed to toxic dust take pay deal
    – BBC
    (November 19, 2010) Thousands of workers exposed to toxic dust after the 2001 terror attacks in New York have accepted a legal settlement and ceased litigation. Read more…

  • Lawyers: Sickened 9/11 Workers Reach Settlement Deal With City
    – NY1
    (November 19, 2010) By Friday, more than 10,000 people who became ill from working conditions at the World Trade Center site following the September 11th terrorist attacks had accepted a settlement deal with the city. Read more…

     

Press Release!

Three Additional Settlements to 9/11 Claims Bring Potential Compensation to $816.45 million

New York, New York, November 6, 2010, for immediate release:  Three additional settlements to claims arising from the debris removal operations after 9/11 have been reached, adding $56.45 million to existing settlements that already total up to $750 million in compensation for plaintiffs. Two of the three defendants responsible for the work done at the Fresh Kills Landfill site in Staten Island, New York have agreed to pay up to $24.3 million to settle claims of those plaintiffs who sustained injuries during the debris disposal and evidence examination operations performed at the Fresh Kills site.  Several insurers for Weeks Marine, the defendant responsible for the marine work done on the barges transferring the debris to Staten Island have agreed to pay $28 million to plaintiffs to settle claims for indemnification by the WTC Captive Insurance Co. Inc.  Most recently, respirator manufacturer Survivair has contributed $4.15 million in settlement of plaintiffs’ claims against it.  These figures represent a correction in the figure released on November 6 for the combined settlements.

These latest settlements will benefit plaintiffs that worked at the Fresh Kills Landfill and those that worked on or near barges used for transporting debris to the landfill, suffering injuries there.  This money will be in addition to the compensation those plaintiffs are eligible to receive under the settlement with the City of New York and its contractors (valued at $625 million to $712.5 million) and the Port Authority (valued at $47.5 million).  While the settling insurers covered defendants that were released by the Plaintiffs’ settlement with the City and its contractors, the insurers had not contributed to the Captive settlement on behalf of the marine defendants. 

The money from these latest settlements will be allocated in accordance with the same objective diagnostic criteria and allocation process contained in the Settlement Process Agreement reached with the City of New York and its contractors.  District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who oversees these cases, has already declared that allocation process “fair and reasonable.”  As with the City’s settlement, the plaintiffs will be grouped into four tiers by the type and severity levels of their injuries, with Tiers 1, 2 and 3 receiving fixed payments and Tier 4 receiving variable compensation based on objective medical factors. 

Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel Paul Napoli said that he and his colleagues “are very happy we have reached agreements with these defendants, following extensive negotiations that lasted several years.  Negotiations with remaining defendants have been going on as well and we hope that the latest settlements will encourage those defendants to take this opportunity to resolve the remaining plaintiffs’ claims against them in the near future.

For further information, contact:
Paul J. Napoli
Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern, LLP
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 7413
New York, New York  10118
(212) 267-3700
Pnapoli@napolibern.com

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