9/11 towers’ claim rejected

The owners of the World Trade Center can’t demand billions more in insurance money for the destruction caused by the Sept 11 attacks, a federal judge decided.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled after hearing testimony by economic experts for the Trade Center owners and for the airlines linked to the planes that were hijacked in the attacks.

The non-jury trial was held to decide whether the owners could collect more than the nearly €3.8bn they’ve already received toward reconstruction.

In ruling against developer Larry Silverstein and World Trade Center Properties, the judge cited state laws that bar “windfalls and double recovery on the same loss.”

The judge said though he was ruling against the Trade Center owners, they deserved credit for spearheading the recovery effort at the 16-acre lower Manhattan site.

“You were dealt a very severe blow,” the judge said of the attack, which turned the Trade Center into an inferno and destroyed the twin towers. Since then, the developer’s workers have laboured to “create beauty out the ashes of the destruction,” he added.

A spokesman for Silverstein Properties said the developer was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling and would appeal but remains committed to the ongoing construction projects on the site. The Trade Center owners say it has cost more than €5.3bn to replace the towers.