A Florida lawyer has filed suit against the city of New York on behalf of some plaintiffs who feel that deaths of family members in the World Trade Center were the fault of the city, and hope to maintain the lawsuit and simultaneously collect from the Federal Victims Compensation Fund. A plaintiff blames sinister forces for her inability to find a lawyer closer to home.
One of the plaintiffs, Catherine “Sally” Regenhard, said she spent two years trying to find a New York City lawyer who would file the lawsuit.
“I couldn’t get one New York City law firm to touch this legal issue with a 10-foot pole,” Regenhard said. “You ever hear the saying ‘You’ll never eat lunch in this town again?’ I guess the lawyers have to keep eating lunch in New York City. It’s political.”
The real reason, one suspects, is that the New York lawyers might be aware that submitting a claim to the Fund waives all lawsuits against other entities (with the exception of the terrorists themselves and collateral claims on insurance policies), a fact that her lawyer, Barry Cohen, disputes in an interview with the Tampa Tribune. Apparently neither Mr. Cohen nor the newspaper could be bothered to check the Federal Fund’s web site for a definitive answer. (Joshua B. Good, “Tampa, Fla., Lawyer Sues New York on Behalf of Sept. 11 Families”, Tampa Tribune, Dec. 24; Graham Brink, “Tampa attorneys file 9/11 lawsuit”, St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 24). Fortunately for Mr. Cohen’s malpractice carrier and his clients, the effect of any conflict would be to nullify his lawsuit rather than his clients’ rights to receive compensation from the government.
Lest you think that takes the cake, the SoCalLawBlog informs us of an even nuttier lawsuit that blames the September 11 attack on a RICO conspiracy involving, among others, the first President Bush, Condoleeza Rice, the Council for Foreign Relations, and Kenneth Feinberg. (complaint; press release, Nov. 26). The non-lunatic media’s refusal to cover this before now is, no doubt, part of the conspiracy.
The lawyer, Philip J. Berg, earlier filed a self-styled “class action” lawsuit to overturn the results of the 2000 Presidential election, thus exhibiting some confusion over the meaning of the term. His call to disbar Justice Thomas was similarly unsuccessful. Is he the same Philip J. Berg who argued for himself and lost an appeal of his mortgage bank’s foreclosureearlier this year? That’s for others to research.
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