Aegis Insurance Services, Inc. v.

7 WORLD TRADE COMPANY, L.P. 737 F.3d 166 (2nd Cir. 2013)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The 7 World Trade Center (7WTC) Building was hit with flaming debris when the World Trade Center buildings collapsed from the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The New York City Fire Department made the decision to establish a collapse zone and walk away, rather than fight the fire. The building collapsed, destroying the electrical substation owned by Consolidated Edison Co. of New York, Inc. (Con Ed) directly underneath the building. Con Ed and its insurers (Ps) sued the Ds, who designed, built, operated and maintained 7 WTC. Ps alleged that the negligence of Ds caused the collapse. 7WTC was built in the 1980s under 1980’s building codes. The Con Ed substation in question was built in 1970. The trapezoidal shape of the building also required that in the northeast corner of the building, the steel girders connecting two columns (Nos. 79 and 44) formed an oblique angle, rather than a right angle. Under the standards, the building was to possess general structural integrity, which is the quality of being able to sustain local damage with the structure as a whole remaining stable and not being damaged to an extent disproportionate to the original local damage. Terrorism was on the rise in Manhattan from the 1980s. It became more dangerous with the 1993 car bomb detonated in the parking garage of One World Trade Center with the intent to topple the building. Then 9-11 occurred. The collapse of the North Tower sent flaming debris spewing beyond Vesey Street. Debris from the collapsing towers, some of it still on fire, rained down on the surrounding buildings, causing structural damage and starting new fires. Air pressure waves spread dust clouds of building materials in all directions for many blocks. Those waves carried light debris and could lift or move small vehicles and break windows in adjacent buildings for several blocks around the WTC site. 7WTC 7, a 47-story building burned unattended for 7 hours before collapsing at 5:20 p.m. The falling debris also damaged water mains around the WTC site. When firefighters arrived, they assessed the damage to 7WTC to be excessive. A structural engineer said that left alone, the building would collapse in 5-6 hours. The collapse of the Twin Towers destroyed the water main responsible for bringing water to 7WTC. With no water, and no civilian lives at risk, and with their comrades buried in the Towers' debris, the fire department decided to create a collapse zone around 7WTC and allow the fire to burn, unchecked. The Fire Department had already lost 400 firefighters. Authorities in charge deemed the building to be vacant, and they decided not to risk any more firefighters' lives that day. When it collapsed, it crushed the Con Ed station. Ps sued Ds. Eventually, the court dismissed the charges against Ds and P appealed. The court found Ds did not owe P a duty of care.