"We are ready to move on to the second phase of the trial against 10 insurers with more than a billion dollars worth of per occurrence coverage," Silverstein stated previously. "We feel the evidence is strongly in our favor and look forward to our next day in court. And we're looking forward to the day when this litigation ends so we can focus all of our attention on rebuilding." There is still a possibility that Silverstein could appeal the first verdict.
In the first case, jurors found that the Wilprop form bound the insurers to a one-occurrence scenario. That ruling awarded Silverstein $3.5 billion. He had hoped to double that with a ruling that recognized the attacks as two separate events. Now, the maximum potential recovery on a two-occurrence decision in this second trial is approximately $5.5 billion.
Despite all the court battles, reconstruction effort at the World Trade Center is ongoing. A groundbreaking was held earlier this year for the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower and Silverstein just pegged CB Richard Ellis to head up the leasing effort for the 1.7-million-sf 7 World Trade Center, which is expected to be completed early in 2006.
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