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 The workers, whose settlement terms were not made public, are among
roughly 1,000 to pursue damages claims in Manhattan federal court
for having cleaned more than 100 privately-owned buildings in
downtown Manhattan.
These 1,000 workers brought claims against approximately 345
building owners, managing agents, tenants, environmental consultants
and contractors.
About one-third of the workers have settled, and another 400 to 500
could follow within a month, according to Paul Napoli, a lawyer for
the 78 settling workers.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan, who oversees
much of the Sept. 11 litigation, approved the latest settlements.
He said they compared "favorably," both individually and as a whole,
with a $716 million accord he approved in 2010, which covered more
than 10,000 people who worked at the World Trade Center site and
brought claims against the city and contractors.
In a phone interview, Napoli said the 78 workers claimed to have
developed symptoms such as asthma, breathing difficulty, excessive
coughing, dizziness and fatigue.
The 78 workers settled claims against 134 defendants. Twenty-six
workers resolved all claims, and 52 resolved many claims.
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"These settlements with these defendants have been hard fought, and
it is finally bringing closure in one of the last vestiges of this
litigation," Napoli said.
The case is In re: World Trade Center Lower Manhattan Disaster Site
Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.
21-mc-00102.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)
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