9/11 Case Continues: Judge says he may allow terror damages

On July 27, 2011, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said that he may allow the family of Mark Bavis to seek damages in their wrongful death lawsuit against United Airlines and other defendants—not only for his death but also for the "21 minutes of terror" he endured prior to the plane's crash. Bavis was a passenger on board United Airlines Flight 175, the second plane to hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Motley Rice lawyer Don Migliori represents the Bavis family and argued before Judge Hellerstein, citing "not only the calls to the ground, which have been detailed in the 9/11 commission report, but also analysis of the plane's violent final moments, as passengers were thrown about, increasing their fears and expectation of death," according to an article featured in The New York Times.

"My thinking is tending toward allowing terror damages," Hellerstein said.

Bavis v. United Airlines, Inc., is scheduled for trial in November 2011. The Bavis family alleges that the five hijackers were able to board Flight 175 at Boston's Logan International Airport due to gross negligence on the part of the defendants.

Read the full article in The New York Times about the 9/11 Bavis trial.

Read additional coverage by the Associated Press, CNN, The Boston Globe and Boston's WBUR Radio.

Also learn about the In re Terrorist Attacks litigation that Motley Rice attorneys have filed on behalf of its clients against the alleged financiers and material supporters of the terrorist organization al Qaeda.