Cyrus Dugger

City Fails Our Nation’s Heroes Once Again

The posts on Tort Deform recounting the city’s dismal response to the plight of sick Ground Zero workers are at this point too numerous to summarize (here is a link to a few of them). Yet another extraordinary step by the Mayor and his implementation of the “safety is too expensive business model.”

MIKE ASKS JUDGE TO HALT WTC PAYMENTS By SUSAN EDELMAN PrintEmailDigg ItStory Bottom

January 21, 2007 — Mayor Bloomberg is calling for an emergency halt to a judge’s orders that the city start paying sick World Trade Center workers, The Post has learned.

Lawyers for the city have asked an appellate court to stop Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein from forging ahead with settlements and trials for 9/11 responders seeking compensation for respiratory illness, cancer and other diseases.

The rare legal request came after Hellerstein voiced impatience with the city, warning: “I will hold your feet to the fire. We will move this case.”

Hellerstein ordered the city this month to start turning over detailed data on all the workers it hired to clean up the WTC site, and what safety gear it gave them.

Hellerstein has refused to delay the case while the Bloomberg administration appeals his earlier ruling that the city does not enjoy blanket immunity from such suits under a state disaster act.

Hellerstein has appointed two law professors to serve as “special masters” to organize the cases and create a database on more than 9,000 workers.

Paul Napoli, a lawyer for the workers, called the city’s latest motion “a sham maneuver to further delay payments to sick workers.”

Lawyer David Worby said time is running out for more than 500 workers now gravely ill from cancer and other diseases believed linked to toxic exposure. More than 90 responders have died, he said. (link)

Posted at 2:40 PM, Jan 22, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)