Families of airline passengers killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks have begun peppering Manhattan federal court with wrongful-death suits to beat a one-year deadline for legal action, lawyers said yesterday.
Lawyer Mary Schiavo said her firm would file about 30 suits against United Airlines and American Airlines and airport security firms before the Sept. 11 anniversary on behalf of families living in states where the deadline applies.
Eight of the 15 suits already in Manhattan federal court were filed on Friday and yesterday.
“I expect we will really see a lot of activity over the next few weeks,” said Schiavo.
Two cases were filed yesterday by parents of 11-year-old Washington, D.C., students Asia Cottom and Bernard “Curtis” Brown II, who were flying to the Channel Islands off the California coast on a special excursion after winning a National Geographic Society competition when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.