After years of fighting in court, lawyers representing New York City, construction companies and more than 10,000 ground zero rescue and recovery workers have agreed to a settlement that could pay up to US$657.5 million to responders sickened by dust from the destroyed World Trade Center (WTC).
The settlement was announced on Thursday evening by the WTC Captive Insurance Co, a special entity established to indemnify the city and its contractors against potential legal action as they moved to clean up the site after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The deal, which still must be approved by a judge and the workers themselves, would make the city and other companies represented by the insurer liable for a minimum of US$575 million, with more money available to the sick if certain conditions are met.
Most if not all of the money would come out of a US$1 billion grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the settlement “a fair and reasonable resolution to a complex set of circumstances.”
“The resolution of the World Trade Center litigation will allow the first responders and workers to be compensated for injuries suffered following their work at Ground Zero,” he said in a statement.
Marc Bern, a senior partner with the law firm Worby, Groner, Edelman & Napoli, Bern LLP, which negotiated the deal, said it was “a good settlement.”
“We are gratified that these heroic men and women who performed their duties without consideration of the health implications will finally receive just compensation for their pain and suffering, lost wages, medical and other expenses, as the US Congress intended when it appropriated this money,” he said in a statement.
The agreement comes with just two months to go until the first trials are to begin in the case.
Thousands of police officers, firefighters and construction workers who put in time at the 6.5 hectare site in lower Manhattan had filed lawsuits against the city, claiming it sent them to ground zero without proper protective equipment.
Many of those workers now claim to have fallen ill. A majority complained of a respiratory problem similar to asthma, but the suits also sought damages for hundreds of other types of ailments, including cancer.
“We’ve had to fight for what we deserve,” carpenter James Nolan, of Yonkers, said.
“I’m glad it’s coming to an end where I can feel a little comfortable if I pass away my wife and kids can get something,” Nolan said.
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