National And World News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Federal officials said Monday they will investigate why a $1 billion Sept. 11 insurance fund created by Congress to cover claims of sick Ground Zero workers is fighting the cases in court rather than distributing money.

The World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company has come under increasing scrutiny from Congress and the federal government, as roughly 8,000 individual claims await judgment in the federal court system.

The inspector general for the Homeland Security Department indicated Monday he intends to examine the issue, telling Congress in a report that his inquiry will determine why the insurance company "has chosen to litigate all claims instead of settling whenever possible."

The inspector general's review will also determine "what procedures have been established to receive, review and pay medical, hospital, surgical and disability benefits to injured persons," as well as benefits to the relatives of those killed.

The $1 billion insurance company has also been challenged by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Spector, R-Pa., the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Such questions have put lawyers for New York City on the defensive, since the city and some construction contractors are protected by the program.

The top lawyer for the city, Michael Cardozo, has defended the company as "an insurance company, not a compensation fund" and argued that as such, it is obliged to defend legal claims. A spokeswoman for the city's law department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening about the inspector general's inquiry.

In July, attorneys for the thousands of workers who say they were sickened after working to clean up the site went to court to demand the insurance company spend the money on their health care.

The insurance company, once an afterthought of the $20 billion post-Sept. 11 aid package for New York, has taken on increasing importance amid mounting complaints that those who worked on the toxic debris pile need long-term health care. Many of the health complaints center around lung problems attributed to the dust, fumes and debris at the site.

Some advocates for those workers, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., have estimated it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year to provide medical care for those workers.

The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has urged Congress to redirect the captive insurance company money to create a new compensation fund for sick workers, and give the city and the contractors immunity from such lawsuits.

Also happening Monday, several first responders rallied today, protesting the medical examiner's classification of Ground Zero deaths.

"I was in a coma for 16 days with respiratory failure," said Jim Riches, who lost his son on Sept. 11. Riches was among several first responders today protesting what he called the medical examiner's refusal to properly classify the deaths of his colleagues who died after the attacks on New York.

"I got slapped in the face twice," Riches told WCBS-TV. "My son died because bad radio equipment, I got sick because they me didn't give respirators, proper equipment."

Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel said the first responders "are American heroes," and added that "we must do everything we can help them and their families."

No one at the medical examiner's office was available for comment.

Donna Michaels says her detective husband is sick from spending hundreds of hours at Ground Zero, and the city refuses to give him disability.
 
"They were facing complete and utter denial that the illnesses even exist despite the valid medical tests," said Michaels.

One lawmaker is introducing a bill to help Ellicott's family, as well as others.

State Senator Eric Adams D-Brooklyn said, "We owe it to them to give them the respectable amount of health care benefits to their families and others."

Adams plans on introducing his bill next week. 

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