N001458
Tuesday, January 08, 2002 4:29 PM
Dear Sirs:
In connection with the proposed regulations governing distributions
from the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001, I submit the
following comment and appeal for change of the regulations. The statute
provides for the Special Master to determine economic loss suffered by
victims of the September 11, 2001 tragedy. Any such economic loss would
reasonably be based upon the victim's earning capacity. Clearly, that
earning capacity is best evidenced by the compensatioin the victim was
receiving in the year of his or her death and within some reasonable period
before that time. Nevertheless, the regulations choose to ignore the
compensation being received by the victim in the year of his death and,
instead, to look only to the three years preceding death. If the crisis had
occurred early in the year, it might be reasonable to ignore the
compensation in the year of death. However, the victims had worked almost
three-quarters of the year at the time of the tragedy. Under the
circumstances, it is unreasonable and unfair to ignore the compensation for
the year 2001. The regulations can be changed to include the 2001
compensation within your discretion. The statute does not mandate that only
the three previous years' earnings be considered in your equation. The
current regulations unfairly prejudice the families of the young victims who
received substantial pay increases and promotions for 2001. I hope that
you will seriously consider making a change to include 2001 earnings in
your formula equation for economic loss.
Individual Comment
New York, NY