The World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company announced today that Christine LaSala, the company's president since its formation in July 2004, will resign effective July 1, or upon the prior appointment of a successor.

Ms. LaSala leaves as an extended legal controversy continues over how the operation interprets what sort of claims it should protect against.

The captive's board will immediately begin a search for Ms. LaSala's replacement, the company said.

Ms. LaSala came out of retirement to accept the position after a career as a partner in the insurance benefits consultant Johnson & Higgins, which was merged into Marsh & McLennan brokerage in 1997.

She made a two-year commitment to the captive's board in July 2004, with the option to remain longer if the board desired, according to the captive.

She said in a statement, “After nearly four years at the WTC Captive, I have concluded that this is an appropriate point to resume my retirement. It has been my privilege to work for the captive–to play a small part in the efforts to address some of the difficult issues that remain after 9/11.”

The WTC Captive has been embroiled in controversy for the past few years relating to Sept. 11, 2001. Ms. LaSala has maintained the captive was formed to cover the cost of defending New York City and its contractors against lawsuits stemming from 9/11.

Others, however, believe the captive should be paying for medical expenses incurred by 9/11 responders. New York Insurance Superintendent Howard Mills, for one, sent a letter in July 2006 demanding that the New York-domiciled operation send his department a “detailed analysis of claims paid and expenses incurred” since the captive's inception, July 2004.

Mr. Mills wrote, “Few, if any, claims have been paid, but substantial sums have been expended by your organization since 2004 for professional services.”

His letter followed criticism by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, who was quoted in various news media as saying the WTC Captive neglected first responders injured in the 9/11 cleanup, rather than compensating them for their illnesses.

In a letter responding to Mr. Mills obtained by National Underwriter, dated Aug. 1, Ms. LaSala explained that Congress' intent in forming WTC Captive “was to fill a gap in insurance coverage that would ordinarily have been purchased from commercial insurers.”

In July 2007 the WTC Captive and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg were hit with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit on behalf of workers injured during post-9/11 cleanup activity at the Twin Towers.

The lawsuit, titled John R. Walcott, Frank Maisano and Mary E. Bishop vs. WTC Captive Insurance Company Inc., et al., was filed in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, a county-level tribunal.

That action named Ms. LaSala as a defendant along with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Marsh Management Services Inc. and others. It accused them of misuse of a $1 billion grant from the Federal Emergency Management Association.

A WTC spokesman told National Underwriter today that the Walcott case was “removed to the United States District Court in Manhattan and has been dismissed as to all individual defendants and is stayed as to the WTC Captive.”

Ms. LaSala said in today's statement: “We have also communicated to the nation's legislators, regulatory officials and the general public our strongly held view that the best way to resolve the thousands of lawsuits filed against the City and its contractors in connection with the debris removal work is not the tort system but the creation of a new, or the reopening of the old, Victim Compensation Fund.

“If the City and the contractors receive the necessary legal protections from current and future liability, the $1 billion FEMA grant could fund a renewed VCF.”

She told National Underwriter in an e-mail: “The Captive's purpose is expressed at the end of the statement and is what it is–my view (the Captive's view) on the preferability of resolving these issues outside the tort system has not changed since we made the original recommendation nearly one-and-a-half years ago.”

She added in the statement: “Through prudent management of the $1 billion of federal funds granted to it by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the captive today has more than $1 billion available for protection of the City of New York and its contractors, even after the payment of all legal, administrative and other expenses.”

She concluded, “We have faithfully performed our mandate to protect the City and the contractors from liability in connection with their heroic efforts in the rescue, recovery and debris removal work that followed the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11.”

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LaSala To Quit WTC Captive

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