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Judge's Damage-Before-Discovery Raises More 9/11 Questions
Saturday, July 14, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com

News Analysis

In a ruling that jurist.law called "unusual," on Friday, July 13, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the US District Court of Southern New York ruled that "six wrongful death suits filed by survivors of victims who perished in the September 11 terrorist attacks will proceed to trial on the the issue of damages on September 4."

The JuristLaw article added: "In an unusual decision, Hellerstein severed the issues of damages and liability to speed up litigation, opting to proceed on with the issues of damages first because 'limited discovery is needed' and also because the 'alleged negligence of airlines and their security contractors have no relation to the amount of compensatory damages' that plaintiffs could recover."

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/07/911-compensation-trial-to-...

In his decision, the judge makes note that many of those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks took advantage of a government initiated "Victim Compensation Fund" and received quick compensation. The quid pro quo? Those who took the compensation could not then participate in a further lawsuit to find out exactly what happened and extract damages relative to what discovery revealed.

Here's how the judge put it:

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In the months following 9/11, Congress enacted legislation “to provide compensation to any individual (or relatives of a deceased individual) who was physically injured or killed as a result of the terrorist-related aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001.” Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act of 2001 (“Stabilization Act”), § 403, Pub. L. 107-42, 115 Stat. 230. The Stabilization Act established a Victim Compensation Fund with an expeditious, non-judicial proceeding to enable claimants to liquidate their claims promptly, without assuming the risks and delays inherent in court proceedings. The Fund disbursed $5.99 billion to 2,880 families of deceased victims of the September 11 attacks, KENNETH R. FEINBERG ET AL., FINAL REPORT OF THE SPECIAL MASTER FOR THE SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND OF 2001 at 52, United States Department of Justice, available at http://www.usdoj.gov/final_report.pdf, and over $1 billion to 2,680 injured victims, id. at 56. The administration of the Fund was successful, and “97% of the families of the deceased victims who might have otherwise pursued lawsuits for years have received compensation through the Fund.” Id. at 1. Those who applied to the Victim Compensation Fund gave up their right to bring claims in this Court.

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The problem with the judge's decision, no matter how well-meaning, is that considerable controversy stills swirls around 9/11 and exactly what happened and who was responsible. Polls have consistently shown that up to a third or more of all Americans do not believe the government's story, while many well-viewed Internet sites continue to raise questions about the government's story - even after publication of the 9/11 commission report.

Those who did not want to settle and take advantage of the government fund were, at least in some cases, looking for answers about 9/11 that would have arisen from the discovery phase of a 9/11 trial. By severing discovery from damages, and putting damages before discovery, the judge has delayed any discovery in the trial, and in his statement, does not seem to address when discovery will take place.

Such a judicial oddity in such an important case is bound to give rise to additional perceptions, however unwarranted, that someone, or some group, somewhere, in the upper reaches of American government, has something to hide.

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