Law Dept letter re: WTC litigation claims, January 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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CT .JAH n P ir 28 The City of New York MICHAEL A. CARDOZO Law Department Corporation Counsel 100 CHURCH STREET NEW YORK, N.Y. 10007-2601

January 15, 2003

Hon. Christopher O. Ward Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection 59-17 Junction Boulevard Corona, NY 11368

Re: World Trade Center Litigation Document Retrieval Process

Dear CommissiqM^rWard:

As I reported at the Agency head meeting with the Mayor in December, a substantial number of wrongful death, personal injury and property damage claims have been filed against the City as the result of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I have created a unit, within the Law Department’s Tort Division, to defend the City’s interests with respect to those claims. Although we do not yet know the final parameters of the universe of claims against the City, it is vital to the Unit’s work that we not only prepare to defend against the claims we know about, but also anticipate claims that may be raised in the future.

Accordingly, the Unit is in the process of implementing a Citywide document retrieval program to obtain and review every document in the possession of any and all City agencies that may conceivably be related to the World Trade Center disaster and subsequent recovery effort. This will be necessary not only for production of documents during the discovery phase of the various lawsuits we will defend, but to permit us to prepare for and anticipate any claims, whether or not they have been filed at this time. Our search for documents will encompass the broadest possible definition of relevance to the critical events. In order to ensure compliance with the City’s long-term discovery obligations in this critical litigation, it will be necessary for the Law Department to take custody of the original files. Duplicate files will be provided for your agency.

Inasmuch as your agency was significantly involved in the crucial actions of the City in response to the attack on the World Trade Center, I ask you to begin as quickly as possible to aid my staff in the document retrieval effort. To that end, I request that you designate a member of your Senior Staff to serve as principal liaison with Law Department personnel.

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NYC-WTC_000152095