Appeals court says judge used wrong measure to determine Twin Towers damage value

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled a lower court may have underestimated damages suffered by World Trade Center leasehold owner Larry Silverstein due to the Sept. 11 attacks, potentially reviving a lawsuit against airlines, security companies and others.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein used the wrong measure of valuation and the wrong interest rate in finding that the damages were less than $4.1 billion already received in insurance proceeds.

If Hellerstein's new calculations push the damages higher than the insurance, it would revive the effort to show that negligence by the airlines and security companies was responsible for the hijackings that destroyed the Twin Towers.