A judge yesterday approved a $712.5 million settlement between the city and more than 10,000 sick and injured Ground Zero workers despite the impassioned objections of several victims who said the deal shortchanged their specific ailments.
Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein — who rejected an earlier $657 million proposal as too stingy to the plaintiffs and too lucrative for their lawyers — called the new agreement “fair, adequate and reasonable.”
But he also conceded that the complex pact with more than 110 pages was “not perfect,” telling one cancer survivor: “It doesn’t work for you perhaps as well as it should have, and I’m sorry for that.
“I wish there was enough money so that anybody that had any kind of injury got compensated just because he was a hero on 9/11.”
Retired firefighter Kenny Specht, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2007 that he blames on Ground Zero toxins, said the $10,000 he expects to be offered gave him second thoughts about having searched for human remains in the World Trade Center pit.
“To be told now that what I did nine years ago didn’t contribute to my cancer is a tough situation to swallow,” said Specht, 41.
The deal only takes effect if at least 95 percent of the plaintiffs sign on by Sept. 30.