NU Online News Service, March 28, 2:57 p.m.EST

A U.S. district-court judge has awarded a group of insurers$9.35 billion after entering a final judgment against Hezbollah ina lawsuit over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

U.S. District Court Judge George B. Daniels in the SouthernDistrict of New York assessed the damages.

The group of insurers, which includes subsidiaries of ChubbCorp., AXA Group, OneBeacon, and Munich Reinsurance Co., won adefault judgment against Hezbollah and al-Qaida in 2006 when thetwo never contested the suit, filed in September 2003.

Chubb’s Federal Insurance Co. is to receive a large share of theoverall award—about $4.54 billion, according to court documents.When the suit was filed, Federal had made payments to insureds ofmore than $929 million.

Another subsidiary of Chubb, Great Northern Insurance Co., is toreceive nearly $1.79 billion, according to court documents.

Chubb could not immediately be reached for comment.

The original suit sought tens of billions in damages forhundreds of wrongful death and injury claims as well as $3.5billion in property damage loss that was paid or reserved for, and$500 million in workers’ compensation benefits paid as a result ofthe attacks.

In a Bloomberg News story, a lawyer for Chubb noted that it’sunlikely that insurers will ever collect the full amount of thejudgment, but he did say U.S. law permits parties to executejudgments against terrorist assets frozen by the government.

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. government blockedvarious assets in this country held by sponsors of terrorism.