A New York State appellate court has upheld a ludicrous $1.8 billion verdict holding the building operator — not terrorists – chiefly responsible for the 1993 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  The Port Authority that operated the building was held 68 percent responsible for the terrorist attack.  The court said that long-standing tort law principles required it to uphold this ridiculous verdict, since third parties with deep pockets are frequently held more responsible than criminals in civil suits in this country: “the Appellate Division has affirmed unanimously (via) since, after all, such absurdities are central to the modern tort regime.”

Ted Frank has an editorial in the New York Sun on this disturbing court ruling.

This ruling was from an intermediate appellate court in New York (the Appellate Division’s First Department), but don’t expect any help from New York’s highest court (the New York Court of Appeals).  That court, as I have noted before, is even worse, with several really rotten judges like Chief Judge Judith Kaye.