News & Developments
World Trade Center Disaster Recovery Workers’ Claims Questioned in World Trade Center Disaster Litigation
On May 29, 2008, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York held a status conference in the World Trade Center Disaster Site litigation, Master Docket number 21 MC 100. The plaintiffs in the mass tort action, firefighters, police officers, construction workers and other individuals, claim they sustained respiratory injuries while participating in emergency response activities at Ground Zero in the aftermath of September 11th. They seek to recover damages from the city of New York and its contractors, including the $1,000,000,000 in insurance that they maintain.
Prior to the status conference, Judge Hellerstein had consolidated the more than 10,800 plaintiffs’ cases for pre-trial discovery purposes. He had also ordered them to file short form complaints that listed their injuries and to produce all of their medical records from 1995 forward. At the conference, counsel for the city of New York and its contractors advised the Court that many of the plaintiffs did not sustain any of the injuries that the media had previously alleged they had, and that, in fact, some plaintiffs did not sustain any injuries at all. Specifically, counsel represented that “the severity of plaintiffs’ cases, taken in the composite, has been grossly overestimated and is routinely overestimated in the press and in other places.” He further stated that the city’s “conclusion… from what is in front of us now is that the number of plaintiffs who are both seriously injured and are able to link that injury to anything having to do with the World Trade Center and 9/11 will be an extremely small percentage of what is now an overly expansive pool that is the result of virtually no screening of cases before they were taken in and filed.”
The city revealed that as many as 30% of the plaintiffs had nothing more than nominal injuries such as a runny nose. It further revealed that a significant number of their alleged injuries (e.g., multiple sclerosis and hernias) could not be causally related to their exposure to the World Trade Center debris. The city also uncovered the previously unknown fact that many of the plaintiffs not only filed suit without having been diagnosed with any injury, but did so only because the unions that represent them recommended that they do so. The city further reported that, based on a sample study of 500 plaintiffs’ medical records, a significant number of plaintiffs had pre-existing medical conditions, which could easily have been the cause of their alleged respiratory illnesses. For example, 78% had been diagnosed as obese or morbidly obese, both of which conditions are known to cause respiratory impairment. Moreover, 37% admitted that they are former or current smokers. Furthermore, plaintiffs’ medical records reveal that as many as 30% of them have not sustained any injuries at all. Lastly, the city reported to the Court that it could not complete its analysis of plaintiffs’ claims because they had failed to produce all of their medical records, from 1995 forward, pursuant to the Court’s prior order.
In response, plaintiffs argued that the city’s analysis is deeply flawed and that the evidence that they will offer will prove that the many of the workers suffered from serious respiratory related injuries, such as lung cancer, which were caused by their exposure to the World Trade Center debris. After hearing the parties’ arguments, the Court ordered the plaintiffs to produce all of their medical records from 1995 to date.
It remains to be seen how the court will address the city’s arguments after the plaintiffs produce the necessary medical records. Future significant developments regarding this mass torts claim will be reported here.
SUBMITTED BY:
Andrew J. Scholz, Esq.
Flemming Zulack Williamson Zauderer LLP
New York, NY
