The jury in the WTC/Silverstein trial asked the judge yesterday if it should treat negotiations of four Lloyd's of London insurers as one.
The question by the jury came before lunch on the fifth d …
The jury in the WTC/Silverstein trial asked the judge yesterday if it should treat negotiations of four Lloyd's insurers as one.
The question by the jury came before lunch on the fifth day of deliberations in the trial over insurance coverage for the destruction of the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 that will help determine how much money is available to rebuild the complex.
Jurors are being asked to decide whether a group of insurers led by Zurich-based Swiss Re and Lloyd's used an insurance form that defined the towers' destruction as one event.
Lawyers for Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder on the property, have argued that because the towers were brought down by two separate plane crashes, he should be able to collect roughly double on his $3.5bn policy.
Lloyd's arranged part of the cover on the property, obtaining commitments from about 20 different insurers. Four of these insurers represented a bulk of Lloyd's participation.
The jury asked US District Court Judge Michael Mukasey of the Southern District of New York to clarify instructions as to whether it should treat negotiations on all four of these companies as one.
He said he would hear arguments from lawyers on both sides before instructing the jury. The jury also asked Mukasey to clarify whether signing a preliminary insurance form indicates an intent to agree to the terms of that form.
