The first wrongful death lawsuit resulting from the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 will go to trial next April, a judge said yesterday.
US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the trial date over the complaints of aviation security industry lawyers who said they needed more time to prepare.
"There's a great deal of shock on the defence side," said Desmond Thomas Barry, a lawyer representing the aviation defendants.
It has not been decided which of three remaining wrongful death claims will go before the jury at the trial. More than 90 families have already settled their claims and do not need trials.
Mr Hellerstein said he wants the trial, which begins on April 12th, completed in less than a month and will set limits on the time given to each side so presentations to the jury are equal.
Once the trial is completed, Mr Hellerstein said, he will begin trials for damage claims by people who suffered respiratory illnesses at the World Trade Centre site.
He said he wanted the first trial to result from a lawsuit on behalf of victims who were on the planes that were hijacked.
"When we think of 9/11, we think more of the people in the aeroplane than anyone else," the judge said.
Mr Hellerstein said the three wrongful death lawsuits that remain will be tried in two trials.
One trial will consider whether the aviation defendants face liability in the deaths of Sara Low (28) a Boston-based flight attendant who died when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Centre, and Barbara Keating (72) of Palm Springs, Florida, also aboard American Flight 11.
The other trial will decide whether defendants are liable in the death of Mark Bavis (31) of West Newton, Massachusetts, a scout for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team who was aboard United Flight 175, which also struck the World Trade Centre.
Mr Hellerstein told lawyers for the plaintiffs to tell him in the next week which trial will be first.
Almost all - 97 per cent - of the relatives of those killed in planes that hit the World Trade Centre or the Pentagon on September 11th chose to receive payments from a special fund that Congress established.
But 95 lawsuits on behalf of 96 victims were filed by those who chose to reject the fund, the great majority on behalf of families whose loved ones were killed on planes that were hijacked by terrorists.
AP