N001600
Monday, January 14, 2002 6:27 PM
Re: Flight 93 Victim-Comment on Interim Regulations for 9/11
Victim Compensation
Our firm represents the widow of a passenger who died on United Airlines
flight 93. We object to the provisions of section 104.47(a) of your Interim
Regulations to the extent that section treats proceeds of privately paid for
life insurance as "collateral source compensation" as a reduction to the
amount of compensation available to eligible claimants under the 9/11 Victim
Compensation Fund of 2001.
The claimant and her deceased husband paid all of the premiums for their
private insurance policy coverage in a financially prudent manner over the
life of these policies. They should not be penalized for doing so in regard
to participation in the 9/11 Fund, as compared to other victims who were not
so financially responsible prior to 9/11 , and who did not pay for such
insurance, but who end up being covered by the Fund for failing to do so.
Furthermore, the inclusion of this provision in the Regulations acts as a
disincentive for insured victims' surviving spouses and dependents to waive
their private litigation claims and participate in the Fund. Instead, this
provision promotes private litigation alternatives, which quickly become more
attractive than waiver of those litigation rights by participation in the
Victims Fund program. As one of the objectives of this program is to
eliminate or reduce a plethora of private litigation, this provision should
be removed to restore a broad incentive to participate in this Fund.
Finally, the tort laws generally applicable in these private litigation
situations do not require plaintiffs to reduce their claims by the amount of
private insurance received by them. Your regulations should be consistent
with those principles of normal tort law.
As an alternative to eliminating this reduction for private insurance
proceeds, if that is not agreeable to you, you should definitely have an
attractive significant minimum sum which a surviving spouse and each eligible
dependent of a victim can receive by Fund participation, which is not to be
reduced by any "collateral source compensation" which may also be available
to victims' spouses and dependents.
Individual Comment
Palo Alto, CA