Lawsuit Seeks Guidance on Insurance
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - When two planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, was the ghastly destruction one attack or two? Billions of dollars in insurance liability depend on the definition, which has sparked a lawsuit.
A company responsible for 22 percent of the $3.5 billion in insurance covering the World Trade Center filed a lawsuit Monday in New York to head off any plans by the building's owners to define the assault as two attacks, thus doubling the coverage to $7 billion.
SR International Business Insurance Co. Ltd., a British company, said it was "prepared to honor its insurance obligations" for the Sept. 11 attack that demolished the pair of 110-story buildings, but won't pay twice because two planes were used in the attack.
The lawsuit sought to deflate any expectations that an investor group led by Larry Silverstein might be entitled to the $7 billion if the crashes by separate planes are considered separate terrorist attacks.
Silverstein through his company, Silverstein WTC Properties, manages World Trade Center Properties, which owns each trade center complex building. A message left with New York-based parent company Silverstein Properties Inc. was not immediately returned Monday.
SR International also asked the court to decide whether it owed its $770 million solely to the investor group that ran the complex or to other entities, including businesses harmed by the disaster.
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