WTC Workers Suing Insurer

When you have an insurance company established to help provide aid to thousands of people who have suffered injury as a result of the WTC collapse, but which refuses to pay out claims, something would appear to be amiss.

Ailing ground zero workers are going to court to demand that the company overseeing a $1 billion Sept. 11 insurance fund uses it to pay for their health care.

Attorneys for the workers argue that federal officials meant for the money in the WTC Captive Insurance Co. to be used as compensation for sick workers.

The workers have already filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the toxic dust from the World Trade Center site gave them serious, possibly fatal diseases. The latest action, expected to be filed Tuesday, seeks compensation from the company in charge of money appropriated by Congress to deal with Sept. 11 health-related claims.

City officials have long said that the money must first be used to litigate claims before it goes to workers. But attorneys filing the lawsuit in Manhattan's state Supreme Court argue that the money was created to reimburse ailing workers — not fight them in court.

"She hasn't paid a penny to one of my 10,000 people," David Worby, an attorney representing the workers, said of the company's CEO, Christine LaSala. "It was their mandate."

Congress directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2003 to appropriate up to $1 billion "to establish a captive insurance company or other appropriate insurance mechanism for claims arising from debris removal, which may include claims made by city employees."

In the prepared claim, the attorneys argue that Congress and other federal officials never stated "that a captive insurance company be established solely to defend the city of New York and its contractors from all rescue, recovery and debris removal related claims, at all costs."

The company has spent more than $75 million on legal fees and other expenses, the attorneys say.

Roy Winnick, a spokesman for WTC Captive, said he could not comment on the claim until the lawsuit was filed.

More than 100 of the plaintiffs in Worby's lawsuit have died of respiratory diseases and cancers since the post-Sept. 11 cleanup. Last year, the largest study of ground zero workers determined about 70 percent suffer respiratory disease years after the cleanup.

The WTC workers deserve to have their claims dealt with fairly and efficiently. This situation is anything but. The WTC Victim Compensation Fund handled matters relatively effectively for the nearly 3,000 killed in the 9/11 attacks, with only a small percentage of victims' families opting out of the process to sue the insurers and various entities involved in the attacks.

What is happening here is a mess that must be dealt with promptly - the lives of quite a few people who worked to clean up Ground Zero are at stake.

UPDATE:
Others blogging the filing of the lawsuit against the insurance company and the plight of workers suffering from a range of ailments they attribute to their time spent working in and around Ground Zero: Jewlicious, Vitabeat, The Daily Report, Politics & Law Enforcement.