WTC Jury Deliberates A Second Day
By Michael Ha
NU Online News Service, April 20, 4:20 p.m. EDT? The jury in the federal insurance dispute trial that pits World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein against 13 of his property insurers continued deliberations for a second day after sending a number of notes out yesterday.[@@]
The jurors wrote Judge Michael Mukasey asking to look at testimony from three of the witnesses: Paul Blackmore, the U.K. Willis broker who oversaw the marketing of the WTC insurance placement in London and European markets in 2001; Daniel Bollier, a Swiss Re underwriter; and Suzanne Douglass, managing director of property insurance at Willis.
Additionally, the jurors asked the judge in their notes about an e-mail that was sent from Willis, Mr. Silverstein's broker for the WTC insurance placement, to an underwriter at Swiss Reinsurance, the carrier with the largest insured interest in dispute.
The e-mail in question, sent in July 2001, had an attachment containing a form from Travelers Property Casualty, a form which would help Mr. Silverstein's claim that the WTC attack constitutes two reimbursable events, as opposed to the Willis' "Wilprop" form which defines the attack as a single event.
The jurors heard testimony that a Swiss Re underwriter had received this e-mail which contained, among other attachments, a Travelers form, but that the underwriter had not responded to it.
In its note, the jury asked, "Does just getting the form and remaining silent constitute an agreement to the form?" (Judge Mukasey had already instructed the jury on this issue, telling them that silence doesn't constitute an agreement.)
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