N001930
Thursday, January 17, 2002 10:26 AM
victims' compentsation fund
My 31 year old husband was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11th and I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction and disappointment with the compensation fund's regulations as currently set forth.
To begin with, there should at least be a minimum award given to every victim's family, regardless of what other collateral assets they have. It is absurd that a victim's life insurance is being deducted from the award for many reasons--if we were to sue in court, this would not happen, and this fund is supposed to be a viable alternative to suing; life insurance is an investment like many others, why is this one being singled out as one to "count" against the award; why are families being punished for being responsible? The families hit the hardest by this decision are those that have children, since these are the people that generally have life insurance, and these are the families that need the money most (though the fund was never intended to be need based--it was supposed to compensate families for economic loss).
My husband didn't have life insurance and so this doesn't affect me personally, but I am very concerned about the many people I know who will be in a horrible situation if the current regulations aren't changed. However, it is clear that the deduction of life insurance is not likely to be taken out of the staute. So at the very least, a minimum award should be set forth so that every family receives some compensation.
Secondly, it is bad enough that life insurance is going to be deducted from the award--but no other voluntary contributions should be deducted. My husband was an employee at . The surviving partners have decided to donate 25% of the company's profits out of concern for their former co-workers' families. It is absurd if this money is then deducted from the families' awards. Why should the partners be giving money to the government when they made a private decision to give it to the families?
And lastly, the earnings chart as set forth by the currrent regulations are ludicrous. Why is Mr. Feinberg using national economic statistics rather than New York statisitics to cap the earning potential of our loved ones (though Mr. Feinberg told a room full of families that there would be no cap). It makes no sense that salaries are capped at the 98th percentile--to all of us it is very clear that the government is simply trying to give us as little money as possible. But if the 98th percentile is going to be selected, it should at least be the 98th percentile of salaries from New York City. Our loved ones were targeted because they were successful, high wage earners who worked in the World Trade Center. It is therefore completely unfair to talk about national averages.
In response to this issue, we are told that once we sign up for the fund, we can "plead our case" as to why we deserve more money. But none of us should have to sign up for the fund and waive our right to sue without having a much clearer idea of the type of award we can expect to receive. Therefore, the earning chart should go well above $231,000. In the statute, it clearly says that families will be compensated for economic loss. There is one very straightforward to calculate this loss--to mulitply their projected earnings and the projected amount of years they would have worked until retirement.
This statute was passed because the government failed to protect our loved ones while they were at work. Of course, it was also passed as a bail-out to the airline and insurance companies. At the present moment, the latter is all that this bill seems to focus on. Our right to sue has been crippled and we are being asked to accept these unfair regulations. Given everything we have gone through, are still going through, and will continue to go through for years to come, the least that can be done is to adjust these regulations so that we can be more adequately compensated for economic and non-economic loss. The latter of which we can never really be compensated for--our loved ones are dead and our lives are changed forever.
Individual Comment