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Terror Attacks Committed Against American Citizens
Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001
Baumeister & Samuels is honored to have spent more than
a decade representing families whose loved ones were killed
in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, including a
number of the heroes on United Airlines Flight 93 who gave
their lives in an effort to thwart the hijackers’ ultimate
goal. We are also privileged and honored to have represented
a wonderful woman who perished in the crash of Continental
Connection Flight 3407 in 2009 after she lost her husband in
the South Tower of the World Trade Center. She was a
tireless advocate for the families of those killed in the
terror attacks, and amongst her many accomplishments, was
instrumental in pushing government leaders to form the 9/11
Commission which conducted an investigation into the
terrorist attacks. We remain deeply saddened by her death.
Following the attacks, lawyers from the firm met with dozens
of family members to evaluate their individual needs and
circumstances to assess whether they could secure fair and
reasonable compensation from the federal administrative plan
established as part of the Air Transportation Safety and
System Stabilization Act (Pub. L. No. 107-42, 115 Stat. 230
(2001) known as the “Victims Compensation Fund” enacted by
Congress in the days following the attacks. We spent more
than a year lobbying federal and state officials on behalf
of all of the victims and their families to modify the terms
of the Fund so as to make it a viable option for families
facing very serious financial losses and fears about their
ability to care for their families. We were ultimately able
to represent many of our clients in hearings before the
Special Master assigned to administer the Victims
Compensation Fund, and we pursued traditional litigation
remedies for others in the United States District Court for
the Southern District of New York.
Following the resolution of their wrongful death claims, we
have continued to pursue justice for the families of those
who perished in the September 11, 2001 attacks following the
successful strategy we employed in suing the government of
Libya on behalf of the families of the victims of the Pan Am
Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. We filed
lawsuits on behalf of our clients against the government of
Saudi Arabia, members of the royal family, banks and various
charities seeking to hold them accountable for civil damages
for financing al Qaeda. In doing so, it is our goal to seek
complete justice for our clients and other victims of
terrorism, and deter others from promoting future terrorist
acts against Americans. Our lawsuits, which were
consolidated with those filed by hundreds of other surviving
family members in the United States District Court for the
Southern District of New York, continue to make their way
through the litigation process to this day.
Pan
Am Flight 103
On December 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 aircraft being operated
as Pan Am Flight 103 was destroyed over the village of
Lockerbie, Scotland when an improvised explosive device
hidden inside a portable radio packed in a suitcase loaded
inside a cargo container was detonated. All 259 passengers
and crew were killed, as well as 11 residents of the
village.
After conducting several years of discovery against Pan Am
and its wholly owned security subsidiary, the case was tried
before a jury in the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of New York. Mitch Baumeister was one of
the primary trial attorneys responsible for presenting
evidence and making arguments to the jury on behalf of all
of the victims’ families, including the important final
trial summation. Additionally, he delivered what has
been described as a “blistering cross-examination” of Pan
Am’s Chairman Thomas Plaskett who eventually conceded that
he had no knowledge of the airline’s security operation
blaming failures which permitted terrorists to load a
suitcase containing a bomb on to the aircraft on other Pan
Am employees. After more than three months of trial
testimony, the jury returned a verdict of willful misconduct
against Pan Am and its security company for their failure to
provide adequate airport security in both Frankfurt and
London which would have prevented the terrorists from
placing a bomb on board a plane bound for the United States.
Pan Am filed an appeal of the jury’s verdict and also sought
a review of the verdict by the United States Supreme Court,
neither of which were successful.
While Pan Am pursued its appellate rights, the families of
the victims lobbied for, and obtained the legal right to sue
Libya for the terrorist activities of its agents who placed
the bomb on board the aircraft. The families continued to
further their goals of justice by pushing the U.S.
government to work with the international community and
bring the agents to trial before Scottish judges sitting in
the Hague World Court. In January 2001, Abdel Basset
Al-Megrahi was convicted of carrying out the bombing.
In October 2002, Mitch Baumeister and a few other members of
the Plaintiffs’ Committee entered into a historic $2.7
billion dollar settlement with the Libyan government to
compensate the victims’ families. Recently, after almost 20
years of legal, political and diplomatic efforts, the
families were finally and fully compensated for their loved
ones’ deaths.
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