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GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Jury Must Decide Occurrence Issue

NEW YORK CITY-In a blow to World Trade Center leaseholder Silverstein Properties, an Appeals Court affirmed a decision that a jury would have to decide whether the terrorist attacks on the twin towers constituted one or two occurrences.

By Barbara Jarvie | Updated on September 28, 2003

NEW YORK CITY-The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a District Court decision that a jury would have to decide whether the terrorist attacks on the twin towers constituted one or two occurrences for purposes of the $3.55 billion per occurrence insurance policy covering the commercial buildings at the World Trade Center complex. The appeals court also affirmed a ruling that three insurers responsible for only $112 million of the overall policy, representing approximately 3% of the coverage, were only liable to pay on a single occurrence basis.

In affirming the decision, the Second Circuit, in its 62-page decision, ruled that the meaning of the term is “ambiguous under New York law” and that a jury would have to decide the issue in order to determine the parties’ intentions as to the meaning of the term as applied to the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Howard J. Rubenstein, a spokesman for Larry Silverstein, head of Silverstein Properties, leaseholder of the site, states, “While we had hoped that the Second Circuit would rule that the events of Sept. 11 constituted two occurrences as a matter of law, we are fully confident that a jury hearing all of the evidence will reject the insurers’ attempts to avoid paying for the cost of rebuilding the World Trade Center.”

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