World Trade Center developer can't seek 9/11 damages from airlines, judge rules

Manhattan Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein and World Trade Center Properties couldn't collect billions of dollars more in damages from the two airlines whose planes crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

According to NBC New York, the WTC's owners have already received more than $5 million from the airlines to go toward reconstruction. The plaintiff's argued that the airlines should pay up another $3.5 million for letting the hijackers onto the two planes in the first place.

But Judge Hellerstein said that New York laws prevent "windfalls and double recovery on the same loss."

Silverstein said he would appeal the case.

“We will not rest until we have exhausted every option to insure that the aviation industry’s insurers pay their fair share toward the complete rebuilding of the World Trade Center,” he said in a statement.