$27.5 Million for 9/11 Workers

NY Times
Nov 7, 2010

A group of workers who claimed they suffered health problems as a result of being exposed to debris from ground zero during its removal and transfer to a landfill on Staten Island stand to receive $27.5 million in a settlement announced on Friday.

The workers are a subgroup of the more than 10,000 plaintiffs who must decide whether to accept a far larger settlement with the city and its contractors over respiratory illnesses and injuries that they say they sustained because the defendants failed to ensure the safety of the workers after the Sept. 11 attack.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court in Manhattan, who is overseeing the mass litigation, said in an order issued Friday that the plaintiffs affected by the latest settlement could claim money from it only if they opted into the larger settlement with the city.

That settlement, up to $712.5 million, requires the approval of 95 percent of the plaintiffs by Monday to be valid.

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Deadline Extended for 9/11 Settlement

MIREYA NAVARRO
NY Times
Nov 10, 2010

The city is giving more than 10,000 workers an extra eight days to decide whether to settle their lawsuits over illnesses they attribute to exposure to environmental hazards during the rescue and cleanup work at ground zero.

The plaintiffs had until late Monday night to opt into a settlement of up to $712.5 million; a 95 percent approval level was required for the settlement to go into effect. But lawyers for the plaintiffs asked for an extension from the WTC Captive Insurance Company, which will pay individual settlement amounts out of a federally financed fund. In a letter to the lawyers on Tuesday, the insurance company extended the deadline to Nov. 16.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, the federal district court judge overseeing the litigation, approved the extension, issuing an order saying that “the huge influx of plaintiffs opting into the settlement continues to tax the capacity to process” the plaintiffs’ documents.

He asked the parties to report whether the responses had reached the 95 percent approval rate “as soon as possible” after Nov. 18.

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