A federal judge is days away from deciding if New York developer Larry Silverstein can recover as much as $3.5 billion from airlines for damages to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, on top of more than $4 billion he has received from insurers, Reuters reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein started a three-day trial yesterday in which he will decide how much of the insurance payments should offset the damages Silverstein is seeking from the airlines. These include United Airlines, now United Continental Holdings Inc., American Airlines and American's parent, AMR Corp. Roger Podesta, a lawyer for the airlines, argued that Silverstein's insurers have already paid him for the same losses he is seeking from the airlines. The insurance payments and the claims against the airlines are "for the same category of loss," Podesta said in opening arguments. Should Judge Hellerstein decide the claims do not correspond with each other, Silverstein would then have to prove liability in a separate trial.
