I. M. Esperto
11th Sep 2003, 02:40
This could be the death knell of the ailing American Airlines, United Airlines, and Boeing.
Let's see who the lawyers will be on this.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20030910/ts_usatoday/11829561
USA TODAY
Judge allows 9/11 lawsuits against airlines, others
Wed Sep 10, 8:04 AM ET Add Top Stories - USA TODAY to My Yahoo!
By Laura Parker, USA TODAY
A federal judge in New York City said Tuesday that the airline industry could have guarded against the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he ruled that lawsuits brought by 70 families of victims can proceed.
Crashes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon (news - web sites) and a field near Shanksville, Pa., "may not have been foreseen," U.S. District Judge ALVIN HELLERSTEIN wrote, but the airlines had a duty to protect their passengers, crew and victims on the ground by better screening passengers. "The. .. defendants controlled who came onto the planes and what was carried aboard," Hellerstein wrote. "They had the obligation to take reasonable care in screening."
The ruling came two days before the second anniversary of the attacks and the deadline for filing personal injury lawsuits in New York. It prompted predictions of a last-minute rush in filings. So far, about 100 lawsuits have been filed.
The defendants American Airlines, United Airlines, Boeing and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center property had asked that the suits be dismissed. They argued that they could not have anticipated suicide attacks that involved deliberately crashing an aircraft.
The judge disagreed. "While it may be true that terrorists had not before deliberately flown airplanes into buildings, the airlines reasonably could foresee that crashes causing death and destruction on the ground was a hazard that would arise should hijackers take control of a plane," he wrote. "The intrusion.....................
Let's see who the lawyers will be on this.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20030910/ts_usatoday/11829561
USA TODAY
Judge allows 9/11 lawsuits against airlines, others
Wed Sep 10, 8:04 AM ET Add Top Stories - USA TODAY to My Yahoo!
By Laura Parker, USA TODAY
A federal judge in New York City said Tuesday that the airline industry could have guarded against the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he ruled that lawsuits brought by 70 families of victims can proceed.
Crashes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon (news - web sites) and a field near Shanksville, Pa., "may not have been foreseen," U.S. District Judge ALVIN HELLERSTEIN wrote, but the airlines had a duty to protect their passengers, crew and victims on the ground by better screening passengers. "The. .. defendants controlled who came onto the planes and what was carried aboard," Hellerstein wrote. "They had the obligation to take reasonable care in screening."
The ruling came two days before the second anniversary of the attacks and the deadline for filing personal injury lawsuits in New York. It prompted predictions of a last-minute rush in filings. So far, about 100 lawsuits have been filed.
The defendants American Airlines, United Airlines, Boeing and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center property had asked that the suits be dismissed. They argued that they could not have anticipated suicide attacks that involved deliberately crashing an aircraft.
The judge disagreed. "While it may be true that terrorists had not before deliberately flown airplanes into buildings, the airlines reasonably could foresee that crashes causing death and destruction on the ground was a hazard that would arise should hijackers take control of a plane," he wrote. "The intrusion.....................