In this Oct. 11, 2001 file photo, firefighters make their way over the ruins of the World Trade Center through clouds of smoke at ground zero in New York. (AP Photo/Stan Honda, Pool)
A federal judge signed off on a legal settlement Thursday that could pay as much as $713 million to 9/11 responders exposed to World Trade Center dust, and immediately urged thousands of police, firefighters and construction workers to take the deal.
U.S. District Judge Hellerstein gave his enthusiastic endorsement to the proposed package just three months after sternly rejecting an earlier plan that would have put less money into the hands of ground zero workers who got sick after breathing the toxic ash.
He said months of nonstop negotiations had produced a pact capable of ending the 7-year-old case, which pitted New York City officials against thousands of men and women hailed as heroes for their service at the trade center.
The new proposal would add roughly $125 million to the pot, and include bigger payments for people diagnosed with cancer, an illness that hasn’t yet been linked to the dust but is perhaps the most feared among the workers.
“This is a very good deal. I am very excited about this deal,” Hellerstein said. “There are 10,000 people out there, and I hope 100 percent come into it.”
The settlement’s success is still highly in doubt.
Under the terms of the agreement, 95 percent of the 10,000 workers involved in the case must opt in for it to be in effect.
They must chose quickly. The agreement gives them only 90 days to make up their minds.
Some 9/11 responders had complained the original agreement contained far too little money, and said they would hold out for something better or hope Congress would intervene with a richer compensation bill, including one that could be considered this summer in the House.
John Feal, of the Long Island-based 9/11 victims’ group, the FealGood Foundation, praised the improved compensation in the deal but said it still does too little for the sickest responders.
“This settlement is the best way to compensate people who aren’t truly sick,” he said. “There isn’t enough money to give to the people who are seriously sick. This should have been in the billions, not in the millions. But it is better than the first one.”
Hellerstein warned potential holdouts that they were risking prolonging the complicated case for years, and might wind up with nothing if they couldn’t prove that their illnesses were linked to trade center dust.
“There is no better deal. This is the deal on the table,” he said.
Lawyers on both sides of the case exhorted responders to vote yes.
“We have a settlement that is fair, transparent, clear, certain,” said Margaret Warner, a lawyer for the insurance fund defending the city.
Nicholas Papain, whose firm represents about 640 firefighters, said “what is being offered in this settlement is their best option, and, for all intents and purposes, their only option.”
In March, Hellerstein rejected the initial version of the settlement, partly because he said it was too stingy for the most seriously ill responders and too rich for their lawyers. That deal would have paid between $575 million to $657 million, depending on how many people opted in, with about a third of the total going to legal fees.
The new proposal would pay at least $625 million and as much as $712.5 million if nearly every worker joins the pact, and the lawyers would get less. Attorneys representing the responders agreed to cut their fees to 25 percent of the award. That change was worth about $50 million.
The special insurance fund set up by Congress to defend the city and compensate dust victims also agreed to kick in an addition $50 million to $55 million. Workers’ compensation insurers also agreed to waive certain claims to recover some of the money they have already paid out to trade center responders — a move worth additional millions to the workers.
Individual payments under the settlement would range from a minimum of $3,250, for people who aren’t sick but worry they could fall ill in the future, to as much as $1.5 million to people who have died.
Nonsmokers disabled by severe asthma might get between $800,000 and $1 million.
People disappointed with their award would be able to appeal to a neutral administrator, and the court appointed Kenneth Feinberg, the former special master of the federal 9/11 victim compensation fund, to serve in that role.
Speaking in the courtroom, Feinberg urged responders to join the settlement.
“What is the alternative? To wait? You’re waiting for Godot. You’ve waited enough,” he said.
Workers who take the deal would give up their rights to sue the city and its contractors for sending them into the trade center’s dusty ruins without masks or other protections that might have kept the particles out of their lungs and digestive system.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement calling the deal “a fair settlement of a difficult and complex case that will allow first responders and workers to be fairly compensated for injuries suffered following their work at ground zero.”
By DAVID B. CARUSO,Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
