Md. law firm settling its 9/11 cases

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Oct 3, 2007 by Brendan Kearney

A Baltimore County law firm has reached a settlement for its clients in the longstanding Sept. 11 litigation in New York, The Daily Record has learned.

The plaintiffs, each of whom lost family members at either the Pentagon or World Trade Center, were represented by Azrael, Gann & Franz LLP in Towson, principally by Keith S. Franz. Attorneys at the firm did not return phone calls for comment on Tuesday.

"The fact of the settlement is known," said Brian J. Alexander, of the New York office of Kreindler & Kreindler LLP. His partner, Marc S. Moller, is liaison counsel for all Sept. 11 tort litigation against the airlines, security firms and port authorities. (Liaison counsel serves the voice of the plaintiffs to the defense and the court.)

Alexander said the Maryland firm's settlement is under seal but has been reported to the federal court in New York.

A complaint signed by Moller and filed Thursday in New York on behalf of Azrael, Gann client Irene M. Golinski is part of the settlement process, Alexander said. Ronald Golinski was a retired Army colonel who died at the Pentagon when it was struck by the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77.

The Towson firm had been representing "between four and six" plaintiffs, most of whose cases related to American Airlines Flight 77, Alexander said. One involved American Airlines Flight 11, which hit One World Trade Center, the north tower, he said.

Court documents show that Azrael's clients include Golinski, Christine K. Fisher, Julia P. Shontere, and Shirley N. Willcher, all of whom are suing American Airlines parent company AMR Corp. and others.

Alexander said each plaintiff's papers were filed separately at the judge's request for confidentiality reasons.

Word of the settlement comes about two weeks after 14 other plaintiffs settled their suits against United Airlines and two security companies. According to The New York Times, the Sept. 17 settlement left just 21 plaintiffs, all of whom are represented by Kreindler & Kreindler or Motley Rice LLC, a firm with offices on the East Coast.

Alexander said his firm had represented roughly 400 families of people injured or killed in the 9/11 plane crashes. He said "95 percent plus" had resolved through the federal Victim Compensation Fund. About 90, he estimated, filed suit instead.

"Most of the people who did not go into the fund did not because they wanted answers to the questions of how did this happen, why did this happen, and who's responsible?" Alexander said.

In a statement, American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner praised the federal Victim Compensation Fund, which was set up by the government as an alternative to suit, and said the airline is committed to settling with the remaining families.

Alexander believes the airlines and the various security systems "failed everyone on 9/11."

"These airlines knew exactly where their vulnerabilities were... They also knew to an incredible level of detail the nature of the threat, to bin Laden by name," Alexander said. "Short of the flight number and the day, the airlines knew everything they needed to know to prevent it."