New York – A financial firm that lost more than 650 employees in the Sept. 11 terror attacks must reduce its demands that an airline pay it nearly $1 billion, a judge ruled Wednesday.
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U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein made the ruling regarding Cantor Fitzgerald after the company estimated it suffered $1 billion in lost profits because of the deaths of two-thirds of its work force at the World Trade Center.
The judge said Cantor Fitzgerald cannot base its estimate for damages on lost profits resulting from employees who died. He noted that the company had originally put losses at $102 million but raised them in 2009 to $1 billion before reducing them last year to $963 million.
Cantor Fitzgerald had its main offices on the top five floors of one of the twin 110-story towers that were the tallest buildings in the lower Manhattan trade center complex. Employees in the offices died when terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 after it left Logan International Airport in Boston and crashed it into the building between the 90th and 100th floors.
Cantor Fitzgerald has a policy of not commenting on matters in the courts, company spokesman Robert Hubbell said.
Lawyers for Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines did not immediately respond to a message left Wednesday by The Associated Press seeking comment.
The judge, who has presided over most of the litigation resulting from the 2001 terrorist attacks, said the majority of the property claims were settled by other companies for a total of $1.2 billion after the companies had claimed $4.4 billion in damage. Cantor Fitzgerald’s claim is the only one that remains, he wrote.
He said the company’s damage claim was “substantially inflated by the losses caused by the deaths of its employees” and must be restated to eliminate those damages because New York state law does not allow them to be included in the calculation.
The judge wrote that lost profits must arise from physical damage to property rather than mere economic damage.
“Thus, regardless of how artfully it pleads, Cantor Fitzgerald’s attempt to recover what are, substantively, damages flowing from the deaths of its employees is not permissible,” he said.
I don’t understand why are they any different than all the “bailouts” of the big banks including Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae who WILL NEVER REPAY the US Government what they got. This firm lost 75% of their staff and could not function until many years later when they are still rebuilding their business! They s/b given more than anyone – take the foreign aid the US gives the Arabs and give it to a US company that hires US citizens.
American Airlines should not be off the hook; it was the negligence of the U.S. air carriers which led to the carnage. For years, the airlines had been warned of terrorist threats, but they chose to look the other way, or “cooperate” with any hijackers. In 1961, President Kennedy warned cockpit crews to keep their doors locked. JFK’s recommendations were not implemented for another 40 years, until after 9/11/01.