| 9/11
fund saving city 500M, says czar
By PAUL H.B. SHIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, March 31st, 2004
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund will
likely save the city more than $500 million by averting
lawsuits, the head of the fund said yesterday.
The fund accepts claims from victims and their survivors
in exchange for giving up the right to sue.
"I predict that when the program terminates
this June, we probably will have saved the City
of New York half-a-billion dollars or more,"
Kenneth Feinberg, the fund's administrator, told
the Daily News.
Feinberg made his first remarks about the fiscal
impact of the controversial program in response
to criticism the rules on who gets a cut are proving
a tough hurdle for many people.
Of the 7,372 claims, nearly a third have been denied,
closed or withdrawn without a payment, as of yesterday.
But Feinberg noted that only about 30 of the rejected
claims involved a death.
The fund has paid out more than $2.5 billion for
1,871 claims, including 691 for injuries, said Charles
Miller, a spokesman for the fund, which is overseen
by the U.S. Justice Department. The average award
was $1.8 million.
But requests from people like Maria Swiatek, 44,
a mother of four who suffered from severe post-tramatic
depression and is battling ovarian cancer, have
been denied.
"I don't think they spend enough time reviewing
cases," she said. Swiatek, who worked on the
51st floor of the north tower, noted her failure
to seek timely medical care for her cancer was a
direct result of her depression.
Feinberg said he was sympathetic and recognized
"there are some hard cases" that the eligibility
rules reject.
The fund also rejected a claim from Mariane Pearl,
the widow of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel
Pearl, who was kidnapped and then killed in Pakistan
while on assignment. Swiatek and Pearl are planning
to appeal.
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