Wiley Rein and its client and co-counsel were sanctioned $1.25 million Monday by a federal judge in Manhattan for withholding and trying to destroy evidence in a case that concerns insurance coverage for the World Trade Center, which was destroyed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein issued the sanction in response to a motion filed by The Port Authority of New Jersey and New York, the landlord of the World Trade Center and Westfield Corp. Inc., the lessee of the retail space. In the Monday court order Hellerstein found that Zurich and its counsel withheld for nearly two years a 62-page policy that had been printed on 9/11. The document indicates that the Port Authority and Westfield were covered by a Zurich insurance policy on that day.
