Gold9472
03-06-2009, 09:12 AM
Last 9/11 kin holdouts push lawsuits to trial
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/05/2009-03-05_last_911_kin_holdouts_push_lawsuits_to_t.html
BY Thomas Zambito
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 6th 2009, 12:03 AM
There are only three families left out of nearly 100 who are still pursuing legal action over the 9/11 attacks.
A new report reveals some $500 million in settlements was paid out to the families who chose to sue the airlines and airport security instead of take money from the $7 billion doled out by Congress' Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
Among those refusing the payouts is the family of Sara Low, 28, a flight attendant aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first to hit the towers. Low's father, Mike Low, is just as committed to going to trial now as he was in 2003.
"Our intent at that time was to see some accountability for the failures and ineptitudes that led to 9/11," said Low, who runs an Arkansas limestone quarry. "I just want to see some light shined on the actions and inactions of the day. I owe it to my daughter." Were it not for the suit, Low said he would not have learned about his daughter's heroic efforts to thwart the attacks.
At a meeting with top-ranking airline officials in December, he was told his daughter, with help of a fellow attendant, radioed to the ground a description of the hijackers and their seat numbers after the pilots had been slain.
Many of the families dropped their cases only after an emotional meeting with airline officials, said Sheila Birnbaum, the mediator who oversaw the settlements.
"They had not had an opportunity to tell the story of their loss to a representative of the airlines and to personally receive expressions of condolences for their loss from the airlines," she wrote.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein is expected to set trial dates for cases brought by Low as well as the families of Barbara Keating, 72, a passenger on Flight 11; and Mark Bavis, 31, a scout for the Los Angeles Kings who was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the second to hit the towers.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/05/2009-03-05_last_911_kin_holdouts_push_lawsuits_to_t.html
BY Thomas Zambito
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 6th 2009, 12:03 AM
There are only three families left out of nearly 100 who are still pursuing legal action over the 9/11 attacks.
A new report reveals some $500 million in settlements was paid out to the families who chose to sue the airlines and airport security instead of take money from the $7 billion doled out by Congress' Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
Among those refusing the payouts is the family of Sara Low, 28, a flight attendant aboard American Airlines Flight 11, the first to hit the towers. Low's father, Mike Low, is just as committed to going to trial now as he was in 2003.
"Our intent at that time was to see some accountability for the failures and ineptitudes that led to 9/11," said Low, who runs an Arkansas limestone quarry. "I just want to see some light shined on the actions and inactions of the day. I owe it to my daughter." Were it not for the suit, Low said he would not have learned about his daughter's heroic efforts to thwart the attacks.
At a meeting with top-ranking airline officials in December, he was told his daughter, with help of a fellow attendant, radioed to the ground a description of the hijackers and their seat numbers after the pilots had been slain.
Many of the families dropped their cases only after an emotional meeting with airline officials, said Sheila Birnbaum, the mediator who oversaw the settlements.
"They had not had an opportunity to tell the story of their loss to a representative of the airlines and to personally receive expressions of condolences for their loss from the airlines," she wrote.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein is expected to set trial dates for cases brought by Low as well as the families of Barbara Keating, 72, a passenger on Flight 11; and Mark Bavis, 31, a scout for the Los Angeles Kings who was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the second to hit the towers.