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 The settlement, which requires approval from U.S. District Judge
Alvin Hellerstein, averts a trial that had been scheduled to begin
next month and ends one of the final major pieces of litigation
stemming from the 2001 attacks.
John Stoviak, a lawyer for Cantor, disclosed the terms of the
settlement at a hearing on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New
York before Hellerstein, who will consider approval at a hearing on
January 13.
Hellerstein, who has overseen much of the litigation related to the
September 11 attacks, took Tuesday's brief hearing as an opportunity
to reflect upon more than a decade of lawsuits. Questions like how
the United States should prevent attacks or whether there was
negligence involved, he said, may never be fully answered.
"Perhaps that is proper," he said. "There's been no final
accounting. ... Hopefully, what is achieved is a measure of justice,
a measure of reparation and closure to what for many people was a
terrible tragedy."
Cantor lost nearly two-thirds of its roughly 1,000 local employees
after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center's
north tower, where the financial services company had occupied the
top floors. The attacks caused nearly 3,000 deaths in all.
"For the insurance companies, this was just another case, just
another settlement, but not for us," Cantor Chief Executive Officer
Howard Lutnick said in a statement. "For us, there is no way to
describe this compromise with inapt words like ordinary, fair or
reasonable. All we can say is that the legal formality of this
matter is over."
American said in a statement that the airline, its crew members and
its passengers were all victims of the attacks.
"American has vigorously defended itself in litigation brought
against it by property owners and their insurers who allege that
American should have done what the government could not do — prevent
the terrorist attacks," the statement added. "Our insurers have
agreed to settle the claims by Cantor Fitzgerald. Although this
settlement ends these particular legal disputes, American will
forever honor the memory of the true victims and selfless heroes of
9/11."
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In the lawsuit, originally filed in 2004, the firm accused American
of negligence for failing to prevent hijackers from boarding the
flight at Logan International Airport in Boston.
The firm had at one point sought more than $1 billion in damages,
but that sum was later reduced to between $464 million and $484
million.
In defending the case, American had contended that it had no way to
foresee the attack.
The final amount of the Cantor settlement will be slightly reduced,
by less than 2 percent, because two insurers are insolvent, Stoviak
told Hellerstein.
The former AMR Corp, the parent of American Airlines, merged this
week with US Airways Group Inc.
Other September 11-related litigation that has gone through
Hellerstein's court includes cases involving the World Trade
Center's developer, victims, property owners and Ground Zero
workers.
The cases are Cantor Fitzgerald & Co et al v. American Airlines Inc
et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.
04-07318; and In re: September 11 Property Damages and Business Loss
Litigation in the same court, No. 21-mc-00101.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by
David Gregorio)
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