News In Brief

Southern District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has set a hearing for 3 p.m. tomorrow on a motion by New York City and its major contractors to stay all litigation during their interlocutory appeal of the judge’s rulings that have blocked a $657 million settlement in the 9/11 respiratory litigation. The defendants are seeking an expedited appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Lead lawyer James Tyrrell Jr. is challenging the judge’s controversial March 15 order preventing the parties from appointing an allocation neutral as contemplated in the settlement agreement, a March 23 order allowing the plaintiffs to submit an “eligible plaintiff list” after the deadline set in the agreement, and an April 9 order setting a fairness hearing in the case. The parties argue that Judge Hellerstein does not have the power to hold a fairness hearing or review the settlement in In re World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation, 21 MC 100, because it is essentially a private agreement, with Mr. Tyrrell, of Patton Boggs, noting pointedly last week that the some 10,000 plaintiffs should be allowed to settle “free from court interference or influence” (NYLJ, April 16). – Mark Hamblett

Judge Denies Bid to Postpone Embassy Bombing Trial

The trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani for the al-Qaida conspiracy that included the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa will begin in September. Southern District Judge Lewis Kaplan yesterday refused a request by defense lawyers to move the trial, set for Sept. 27, into June 2011. Defense lawyer Peter Quijano had asked the court for the extension, saying his team needed more time to prepare for the first civilian court system trial of a Guantánamo detainee.