dojN002028.xml

dojN002028.xml

born-digital

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2002-01-18

Friday, January 18, 2002 2:55 PM
Comments

Special Master Kenneth Feinberg

I am appealing to you for your help with the victims compensation fund.
I have lost my husband and father of my two young children (under 3) because
of the atrocities of September 11. Under the current tables and the offsets
for life insurance and pensions, my family will be receiving little if any
money. Though no amount of money will bring my 35-year-old husband back to
my family, I do need to continue to live and raise my children as we had
planned to do.
The fact that non-economic damages (or pain & suffering) are equal to
$250,000 for the decedent and $50,000 for each surviving person sickens me.
My husband was in a burning building for an hour before it collapsed; that
compared to the old woman who spilled coffee on her lap at McDonalds and got
$10 million dollars for me seems utterly ridiculous. My husband will never
see his children grow up and they will not remember him, except through
pictures that I have. I have lost my best friend of 22 years because the
airlines could not keep their planes secure and the Port Authority told
people in the Tower 2 not to evacuate and to stay at their desks. That cost
my husband his life.
Economic calculations are being based on National statistics for
potential loss of earnings instead of NY Stats. This can decrease the
earnings up to 100%. There should not be a cap on the earnings of the
victims. This can cost people a lot of money also. My husband was doing
very well and the fund is not coming near to compensating him for his
potential earnings. 2001 is not being factored in as an earnings year, but
my husband was doing better this year than any other. It should be prorated
in the calculation.
There should not be any collateral offsets. We paid money into our life
insurance and work paid into the pension. These things should not affect the
award from the fund. With these offsets, our family is losing a considerable
amount of money.
I consider this a payout from the airlines because they were unprepared to
protect their passengers and the people who were in the buildings that day.
We should not have to subtract anything that we had in place if this was a
normal death, which it wasn't.
The government has set aside 5 billion dollars for the bailout of the
airlines, but only 1.5 billion is going to the families. Our constitutional
rights to sue have been limited and a challenge will take years to resolve.

Thank you for your time in this extremely important matter.


Individual Comment

2002-01-18