Judge allows September 11 lawsuits
A US judge has opened the door to scores of September 11 legal actions against the aviation industry by ruling that the hijacking and crashing of the planes was a ”foreseeable risk”.
US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said negligent security screening might have contributed to the deaths of 3,000 people in the attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and the crashing of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.
“The aviation defendants controlled who came on to the planes and what was carried aboard. They had the obligation to take reasonable care in screening,” he wrote.
The decision handed down yesterday involved the cases of about 70 people injured or killed in the attacks.
The defendants – American and United Airlines, Boeing and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – had sought dismissal of the lawsuits, saying they had no duty to anticipate and guard against deliberate, suicidal aircraft crashes and that any alleged negligence on their part did not cause deaths and injuries.
But in his ruling, Hellerstein said that while it might be true that terrorists had never deliberately flown planes into buildings, “airlines reasonably could foresee that crashes causing death and destruction on the ground were a hazard that would arise should hijackers take control of a plane”.
“The intrusion by terrorists into the cockpit, coupled with the volatility of a hijacking situation, creates a foreseeable risk that hijacked airplanes might crash, jeopardising innocent lives on the ground as well as in the airplane,” he added.
The judge said the port authority, which owns the World Trade Centre property, “has not shown that it will prove its defence of governmental immunity”. He said the plaintiffs had a right to argue that the port authority did not provide a “safe environment”.
The authority also operates Newark International Airport in New Jersey, the departure point for United Flight 93, the San Francisco-bound jet that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001.
As a result of the ruling, court officials were preparing for a possible rush of lawsuits as early as this week as some people choose litigation over the federal victims compensation fund. To receive a payout from the fund, families must agree not to sue airlines or other entities.
American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke said the airline would appeal. “We continue to believe that we are not liable for the events that occurred that day,” he said.
Port authority spokesman Steve Coleman said the agency strongly believed “the responsibility rests with the murderers who led the attacks”.
Boeing spokesman Ken Mercer said the jet manufacturer would also appeal. “Terrorism, not negligence, is the issue at hand here, and Boeing has always been committed to working with airlines, airports and other officials to make the global air transportation system as safe and secure as possible,” he said.
A United representative did not immediately return calls.
“They are important findings, but they are preliminary,” said Marc Moller, a lawyer for several hundred victims and their relatives. The judge “has not said that the airlines are liable. He said that if the plaintiffs can prove their case, the airlines could be liable. The litigation risks lie ahead and they are great”.
About 2,275 claims have been filed for a victims compensation fund created by Congress. Roughly 1,700 eligible families have yet to decide whether to enrol with the fund or file a lawsuit. The average fund payout so far has been about $1.5m (€1.4m).
