January 18, 2006
9/11 New York Firefighters' Families Lose Bid To Sue Motorola
Families of New York firefighters killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, failed Tuesday to persuade the Supreme Court to allow them to go forward with a lawsuit against New York City and Motorola for supplying the rescuers with allegedly faulty radios. [via Cellular News]
... The families accused New York and Motorola of entering into a fraudulent, no-bid contract that supplied firefighters with ineffective radios that city and company officials knew for years didn't work in high-rise buildings.
The equipment carried by firefighters on Sept. 11 was the same model that had been used by rescuers during the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. It didn't work then, the commission said, and it didn't work on Sept. 11.
In court filings, Motorola didn't address the complaints about the radios, but argued that Congress had given the families a choice of filing a lawsuit or accepting money from the fund. By opting for compensation from the fund, the company said, the families "waived their right" to sue.
New York's Fire Department lost 343 members on Sept. 11."
The case is Virgilio v. New York and Motorola, 05-488.
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