General Lee
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Judge: Sept. 11 Lawsuits Can Proceed Against Airlines, Others
Judge Rules Attacks Were 'Foreseeable Hazard'
POSTED: 10:34 a.m. PDT September 9, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- The hijacking and crashing of airplanes in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was the kind of "foreseeable hazard" that the airline industry should have guarded against, a judge ruled Tuesday as he permitted lawsuits to proceed.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said negligent security screening could have contributed to the attacks that resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.
"While it may be true that terrorists had not before deliberately flown airplanes into buildings, the airlines reasonably could foresee that crashes causing death and destruction on the ground was a hazard that would arise should hijackers take control of a plane," he wrote in a 49-page ruling.
"The intrusion by terrorists into the cockpit, coupled with the volatility of a hijacking situation, creates a foreseeable risk that hijacked airplanes might crash, jeopardizing innocent lives on the ground as well as in the airplane," he added.
He made the findings as he let proceed lawsuits blaming airlines, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Boeing Co. for injuries and deaths in the attacks.
The judge said the Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center property, "has not shown that it will prove its defense of governmental immunity as to negligence allegations made by WTC occupants."
The decision was based on the cases of about 70 of the injured and dead.
Messages for comment left with lawyers on both sides of the litigation were not immediately returned.
As a result of the ruling, court officials were preparing for a possible legal onslaught at the Manhattan courthouse as early as this week as some people choose lawsuits over applying to the federal victims compensation fund.
The defendants had argued that the lawsuits against them should be dismissed because they had no duty to anticipate and guard against deliberate and suicidal aircraft crashes into the towers and because any alleged negligence on their part was not the cause of the deaths and injuries.
The judge said the evidence he had seen does not support Boeing's argument that the invasion and takeover of the cockpit by the terrorists frees it from liability.
The plaintiffs said Boeing should have designed its cockpit door to prevent hijackers from invading the cockpit.
The plaintiffs had said that American and United Airlines and the Port Authority were legally responsible to protect people on the ground when the hijacked aircraft smashed into the twin towers, causing them to collapse.
The judge said the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan in earlier cases "had recognized that airlines have a duty not only to passengers on the flights they operate, but also to passengers on connecting flights, and thus may be liable when they allow terrorists to board planes."
He rejected defense arguments that the ground victims lost their lives and suffered injuries from an event that was not reasonably foreseeable because terrorists had not previously used a hijacked plane as a suicidal weapon to destroy buildings and murder thousands of people.
"In order to be considered foreseeable, the precise manner in which the harm was inflicted need not be perfectly predicted," Hellerstein wrote.
Dec. 22 is the last day families may apply to the federal victims compensation fund, created by Congress to provide financial aid to the families of those killed or injured in the attacks, and to protect the commercial aviation industry from crippling litigation.
As of late August, 2,275 claims had been filed. But roughly 1,700 families had yet to decide whether to enroll with the fund or join lawsuits against the airlines, security companies and government agencies.
The average payout so far has been about $1.5 million, with the highest award $6.8 million. The minimum payout is $250,000.
The fund has made offers averaging $1.41 million to 398 families thus far. About 1,600 families have filed papers stating an interest in applying for the fund.
This might not be great news for United, American, and Boeing. How much will it cost to defend these lawsuits? And, how can they defend themselves when the unfortunate actions the crews took allowing the hijackers to take over resulted in thousands of lost lives? I think Johnie Cochran is going to be all over this one....Ouch.
Bye Bye--General Lee
Judge Rules Attacks Were 'Foreseeable Hazard'
POSTED: 10:34 a.m. PDT September 9, 2003
LOS ANGELES -- The hijacking and crashing of airplanes in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was the kind of "foreseeable hazard" that the airline industry should have guarded against, a judge ruled Tuesday as he permitted lawsuits to proceed.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said negligent security screening could have contributed to the attacks that resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.
"While it may be true that terrorists had not before deliberately flown airplanes into buildings, the airlines reasonably could foresee that crashes causing death and destruction on the ground was a hazard that would arise should hijackers take control of a plane," he wrote in a 49-page ruling.
"The intrusion by terrorists into the cockpit, coupled with the volatility of a hijacking situation, creates a foreseeable risk that hijacked airplanes might crash, jeopardizing innocent lives on the ground as well as in the airplane," he added.
He made the findings as he let proceed lawsuits blaming airlines, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Boeing Co. for injuries and deaths in the attacks.
The judge said the Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Center property, "has not shown that it will prove its defense of governmental immunity as to negligence allegations made by WTC occupants."
The decision was based on the cases of about 70 of the injured and dead.
Messages for comment left with lawyers on both sides of the litigation were not immediately returned.
As a result of the ruling, court officials were preparing for a possible legal onslaught at the Manhattan courthouse as early as this week as some people choose lawsuits over applying to the federal victims compensation fund.
The defendants had argued that the lawsuits against them should be dismissed because they had no duty to anticipate and guard against deliberate and suicidal aircraft crashes into the towers and because any alleged negligence on their part was not the cause of the deaths and injuries.
The judge said the evidence he had seen does not support Boeing's argument that the invasion and takeover of the cockpit by the terrorists frees it from liability.
The plaintiffs said Boeing should have designed its cockpit door to prevent hijackers from invading the cockpit.
The plaintiffs had said that American and United Airlines and the Port Authority were legally responsible to protect people on the ground when the hijacked aircraft smashed into the twin towers, causing them to collapse.
The judge said the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan in earlier cases "had recognized that airlines have a duty not only to passengers on the flights they operate, but also to passengers on connecting flights, and thus may be liable when they allow terrorists to board planes."
He rejected defense arguments that the ground victims lost their lives and suffered injuries from an event that was not reasonably foreseeable because terrorists had not previously used a hijacked plane as a suicidal weapon to destroy buildings and murder thousands of people.
"In order to be considered foreseeable, the precise manner in which the harm was inflicted need not be perfectly predicted," Hellerstein wrote.
Dec. 22 is the last day families may apply to the federal victims compensation fund, created by Congress to provide financial aid to the families of those killed or injured in the attacks, and to protect the commercial aviation industry from crippling litigation.
As of late August, 2,275 claims had been filed. But roughly 1,700 families had yet to decide whether to enroll with the fund or join lawsuits against the airlines, security companies and government agencies.
The average payout so far has been about $1.5 million, with the highest award $6.8 million. The minimum payout is $250,000.
The fund has made offers averaging $1.41 million to 398 families thus far. About 1,600 families have filed papers stating an interest in applying for the fund.
This might not be great news for United, American, and Boeing. How much will it cost to defend these lawsuits? And, how can they defend themselves when the unfortunate actions the crews took allowing the hijackers to take over resulted in thousands of lost lives? I think Johnie Cochran is going to be all over this one....Ouch.
Bye Bye--General Lee
