Shortly after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, the United States Congress set aside one billion dollars for the express purpose of reimbursing the injured workers who were exposed to toxic fumes, smoke and particulate matter while working in and around the site of the World Trade Center after 9/11. In Pub. L. No. 108-7, 117 Stat. 517, 518, (Feb. 12, 2003), a spending appropriation bill, Congress directed that FEMA “provide, from funds…. up to $1,000,000,000 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.” The funds were distributed through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) to the mechanism created by New York State for the purpose of administering those claims, the WTC Captive Insurance Co., Inc. (“WTCC”).
Since its inception, the WTCC has consistently violated the Congressional intent that allocated its funding by refusing to consider the claims of the thousands of firefighters, police officers, iron workers and other construction personnel who have contracted life-threatening illnesses as a result of their work at the WTC site. Instead, the Captive (and the City of New York) has consistently argued in court papers and in the press that it exists solely for the purpose of defending the City and its contractors in litigation brought by those injured workers. Since its inception, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spend on lawyer’s fees and claims administration, while a minimal number of claims have actually been paid.
Members of Congress and of the United States Senate, as well as the New York State Insurance Superintendent have all questioned the Captive’s refusal to pay the legitimate claims of the injured workers. In his July 31, 2006, letter to Defendant Christine LaSala, Senator Charles E. Schumer unequivocally stated, in part, that he “worked closely with the City, contractors and the Administration, including OMB Director Daniels to … secur[e] $1 billion in federal funds to ensure that anyone injured at the site would be compensated.” Senator Schumer also stated in the aforesaid correspondence, that “[w]hen [he] worked with the City and the contractors, [his] intent, along with that of [his] colleagues in Congress, was to use this federal money to pay appropriate claims, not to fight claims.”
In his July 27, 2006, letter to Richard L. Skinner, Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, Congressman Jerrold Nadler stated, in part that “it was not the Congressional intent to provide $1 billion in federal taxpayers money simply to fight 9/11 heroes in court, without any provision for paying valid claims.
” Senator Clinton’s September 21, 2006 correspondence to former Captive CEO Christine LaSala said that the WTC Captive “has disproportionately focused its efforts at protecting New York City from the liability that may arise from these claims instead of its responsibility to process the claims and disburse all due compensation to those who were injured at Ground Zero.
” Despite all of these clear statements by the very people who allocated the billion dollar fund clarifying their intent for the use of that money, and notwithstanding the questions raised by the State Insurance Superintendent, the Captive continues to waste the money that was supposed to compensate injured workers in an ill-conceived and mean-hearted fight against those very people who set aside concern for their own life and limb when their city and their country needed them most.
