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The company overseeing a $1 billion insurance fund set up in the aftermath of September 11 is being sued by ailing ground zero workers who want the company to make the money available for their health care.
Congress appropriated the funds for health-related claims stemming from the events of 9/11 and put WTC Captive Insurance Co. in charge of the money.
“The WTC Captive has consistently refused to pay any of the ground zero workers who have become ill on the work site, including any compensation,” the lawsuit stated.
The Lawsuit
According to the complaint, the money was intended to compensate sick workers for pain and suffering, lost salaries, medical treatment or monitoring, and in some cases, burial expenses.
However, plaintiffs' attorney David Worby said WTC Captive's CEO, Christine LaSala, “hasn't paid a penny to one of my 10,000 people.”
Mayor Wants Separate Fund
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is named in the suit with LaSala and others, asserts that the insurance company “can only pay out monies if somebody sues us in court and wins a judgment against us.”
“Congress didn't set up a victims' compensation fund. We'd like them to do that, we've asked for that; they set up a captive insurance company,” Bloomberg said.
The cost of caring for sick workers (and those who could become sick) has been estimated by Bloomberg and other city officials at $393 billion annually.
Class Action Lawsuit
A class action lawsuit previously filed on behalf of ground zero workers claims that toxic dust from the World Trade Center site caused them to develop serious, sometimes fatal illnesses. More than 100 people have died from 9-11 related diseases.
(Source: Forbes online)
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