American Airlines to Pay Cantor $135 Million Over 9/11

Cantor Fitzgerald LP will receive $135 million from American Airlines to drop its lawsuit in which the carrier is accused of failing to stop the hijacking of the plane that crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, killing 658 of the firm’s employees.

Cantor disclosed the accord in a court hearing last week and yesterday told U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan the size of the settlement, Robert Hubbell, a spokesman for Cantor, said yesterday in a phone call. A hearing on approval is scheduled for Jan. 13.

“For us, there is no way to describe this compromise with inapt words like ordinary, fair or reasonable,” Cantor Chief Executive Officer Howard Lutnick said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “All we can say is that the legal formality of this matter is over.”

The settlement of the lawsuit, filed almost 10 years ago, came four days after American’s parent, AMR Corp., completed a merger with US Airways Group Inc. to form American Airlines (AAL) Group Inc. Hubbell declined to comment yesterday on how Cantor will use the money.

Cantor alleged American should have stopped five Islamic extremists who took over Flight 11 from Logan International Airport in Boston and crashed into the North Tower. Cantor’s offices were near the top of the 110-story building. www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-12-17/cantor-to-get-135-million-f...