Sickened 9/11 responders voted to approve a sweeping $625 million legal settlement yesterday, ending what could have been decades’ worth of lawsuits against the city and construction firms over exposure to toxic World Trade Center dust.
After months of deliberating and two extensions, the workers met the minimum vote needed by a hair, with 95.1 percent, or 10,043 out of 10,563 responders, saying yes. The vote met the threshold by one-tenth of 1 percent.
Had more people opted for the settlement and given up their lawsuits, the fund would have swelled to $800 million.
“When I saw it was in danger of not passing, and when I saw the Zadroga bill was in danger of not passing, I thought I’m not going to get locked out of everything,” said Vito Valenti, a DC 37 union rep who volunteered on the Ground Zero pile and now suffers from pulmonary fibrosis.
The James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act, which would provide $7.4 billion in aid to the responders, passed in the House but is stalled in the Senate.
The thousands who sued — including cops, firefighters, construction workers and volunteers — had alleged that the government and its contractors did not provide proper protection equipment and warnings about the toxic soot.
“This settlement is a fair and just resolution of these claims, protecting those who came to the aid of this city when we needed it most,” Mayor Bloomberg said.
Many plaintiffs said they had signed on out of fear that they would otherwise spend years in litigation with an uncertain outcome. Others said they signed on so people sicker than they would get at least some money.
The settlement — which ranges from $3,250 to workers who’ve yet to become sick to $1.8 million to the most seriously ill — will be paid for by the federally funded $1 billion WTC Captive Insurance Co.
They will receive a special health-insurance policy for certain blood and respiratory cancer with a benefit cap of $100,000.
Separate settlement talks with the Port Authority could boost the final settlement pool to $725 million.
“It was very simple. There is no guarantee. You get what you get, the settlement says this is your range from what to what and there is guarantee. You could get zero,” said former NYPD Detective John Walcott, who suffers from leukemia.
The WTC Captive Insurance Co. spent $200 million on attorneys’ fees fighting the suits and negotiating the settlement.
The plaintiff attorneys’ fees are capped at 25 percent after expenses, but they are forbidden to charge their clients with interest on loans they took out to finance their suits.
CASE #1
For sake of his comrades
Retired NYPD cop Glenn Klein said he voted for the settlement to help out those sicker than he.
“My settlement is so small it doesn’t make a difference to me,” Klein said, noting that his likely share would be less than $100,000 despite severe lung scarring and gastrointestinal problems.
“I opted in because the more people who opted in, the better the settlement was supposed to be,” Klein said. “I also opted in because I didn’t want to have to go to court and wait five or 10 years to see a courtroom.”
Klein, a married father of three, clocked 800 hours at Ground Zero and the Staten Island landfill and retired on disability in 2003.
“I’m happy for the people who really need the money and waited years to get it,” he said. “People have numerous medical bills they have to pay.”
He estimates his out-of-pocket medical expenses have exceeded $10,000 over the past three years and says he’s worried he may hit his benefit caps.
CASE #2
Left with no other choice
After criticizing the settlement’s terms for months, firefighter Kenny Specht finally felt he had to support it.
“It is not all it could have been and should have been, but for anyone in the know, it was the only game in town,” said Specht, a 13-year FDNY veteran who retired in 2008. “If there was an opportunity to gain some compensation, we shouldn’t pass up a sure thing.”
Specht was diagnosed in 2007 with thyroid cancer, an illness he blamed on responding to 9/11 and spending the next six weeks working on the pile.
“I will receive a relatively small settlement offer, but I’m getting tired,” he said. “It just became clear to me the deck was stacked against us.”
What responders will get
Tier I
* 2,383 responders, not yet ill
$3,250
Tier II
* 1,567 responders, with a physician’s diagnosis of illness
$4,335 to $7,500
Tier III
* 1,567 responders, with more severe illnesses
$5,420 to $11,000
Tier IV
* 5,308 responders, with most severe illnesses
Group A: $12,000 to $1.83 million
Group B: $6,420 to $646,167
Group C: $7,500 to $885,032