CHUTZPAH AWARD WINNER: The winner of this blog's inaugural Chutzpah Award is New York mega-developer Larry Silverstein, who owns the site formerly occupied by the World Trade Center. Silverstein is fighting with his insurance company, you see, because he had a policy which stated that in the event of a "tragic occurance" that should happen to destroy the Trade Center, he was entitled to collect $3.55 billion. But since the Towers were attacked twice by two separate planes, Silverstein claims that the September 11 attacks in fact constitute two separate tragic occurances, and therefore he's entitled to double the amount ($7.1 billion.) It's not like he has two separate leases, or the two planes crashing didn't have anything to do with one another. What's he gonna do next- sue Osama bin Laden twice?
Posted by Stephen Silver at August 8, 2002 07:18 PM