Southern District Judge Alvin Hellerstein (See Profile) released findings of fact and conclusions of law on Thursday explaining his ruling that developer Larry Silverstein cannot recover $3.5 billion from airlines for damages to his property in the 9/11 terror attacks. Hellerstein first made the ruling from the bench on July 18, following a bench trial. Richard Williamson of Fleming Zulack Williamson Zauderer, who represents Silverstein's World Trade Center Properties (WTCP), has already said his client will appeal (NYLJ, July 19).
The judge said that WTCP could only recover up to $2.8 billion, the fair market value of its lease on the property immediately before the attacks, in a tort claim against the airlines. He ruled such a tort claim was already more than paid by the $4 billion the company collected from its insurers. "I hold that Plaintiffs' blanket coverage, insuring replacement costs and business interruption, corresponds completely to Plaintiffs' potential tort recoveries related to the lost value of their leaseholds, and that the insurance recoveries should be set off against such potential tort recoveries, reducing them to zero," Hellerstein wrote in In re World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation, 21-mc-00100.
