The owners of the World Trade Center can’t demand billions of dollars more in insurance money for the destruction caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reports the Associated Press. Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled Thursday in New York after hearing testimony by economic experts for the trade center owners and for the airlines linked to the planes that were hijacked in the attacks. The non-jury trial was held to decide whether the owners could collect more than the nearly $5 billion they’ve already received toward reconstruction.
In ruling against developer Larry Silverstein and World Trade Center Properties, the judge cited state laws that bar “windfalls and double recovery on the same loss.” The judge said that though he was ruling against the trade center owners, they deserved credit for spearheading the recovery effort at the 16-acre lower Manhattan site. The developer’s workers have labored to “create beauty out the ashes of the destruction,” he added.