NEW YORK CITY: The owner of the World Trade Center vowed Friday to continue his fight to make the airlines whose planes crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11 contribute to the cost of rebuilding them, after a court ruled he could not claim damages.
District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled late Thursday that the losses of Larry Silverstein's World Trade Center Properties had already been covered by a $4 billion payout he received from his own insurers in 2004.
A spokesman for the company said that amount did not come close to meeting the true cost of rebuilding the towers and that it would appeal the ruling.
"We will not rest until we have exhausted every option to assure that the aviation industry's insurers pay their fair share toward the complete rebuilding of the World Trade Center," the spokesman said.
Silverstein has waged a long battle to establish that United Airlines and American Airlines should be held liable for the security lapses that led to their planes being hijacked.
Even if he wins the appeal over this week's ruling, he would still have to prove liability in a separate court case which would put the whole pre-9/11 aviation security system on trial. (AFP)
