FILE- In this June 20, 2003 file photo, Larry Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties and lease holder on the World Trade Center, discusses the rebuilding of the trade center during the 23rd annual BulidingsNY Show in New York. Silverstein is among the World Trade Center owners seeking additional money from aviation defendants to rebuild the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks. At the conclusion of a non-jury trial beginning Monday, July 15, 2013, a judge plans to decide whether the owners of the World Trade Center can try to make several airlines and other aviation defendants pay billions of dollars in damages. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
FILE- In this June 20, 2003 file photo, Larry Silverstein, president of Silverstein Properties and lease holder on the World Trade Center, discusses the rebuilding of the trade center during the 23rd annual BulidingsNY Show in New York. Silverstein is among the World Trade Center owners seeking additional money from aviation defendants to rebuild the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks. At the conclusion of a non-jury trial beginning Monday, July 15, 2013, a judge plans to decide whether the owners of the World Trade Center can try to make several airlines and other aviation defendants pay billions of dollars in damages. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
FILE- In this September 11, 2001 file photo, smoke billows from World Trade Center Tower 1 and flames explode from Tower 2 as it is struck by American Airlines Flight 175, when terrorists crashed hijacked airliners into the buildings. A trial commencing in New York on Monday, July 15, 2013 will decide whether World Trade Center owners can seek additional damages from several airlines and other aviation defendants (AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong) MANDATORY CREDIT
FILE- In this September 11, 2001 file photo, smoke pours off World Trade Center Tower 1 as flames explode from Tower 2 as it is struck by American Airlines Flight 175, after terrorists crashed hijacked airliners into the buildings. A trial commencing in New York on Monday, July 15, 2013 will decide whether World Trade Center owners can seek additional damages from several airlines and other aviation defendants (AP Photo/Chao Soi Cheong) MANDATORY CREDIT
FILE- In this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, American Airlines Flight 175 closes in on World Trade Center Tower 2 in New York, just before impact. On Monday, July 15, 2013, a lawsuit commences in New York City that will decide whether the owners of the World Trade Center can try to make several airlines and other aviation defendants pay billions of dollars in damages for their liability in the attacks. (AP Photo/Carmen Taylor, File
FILE- In this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, American Airlines Flight 175 closes in on World Trade Center Tower 2 in New York, just before impact. On Monday, July 15, 2013, a lawsuit commences in New York City that will decide whether the owners of the World Trade Center can try to make several airlines and other aviation defendants pay billions of dollars in damages for their liability in the attacks. (AP Photo/William Kratzke)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The owners of the World Trade Center can't demand billions of dollars more in insurance money for the destruction caused by the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge decided Thursday.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled after hearing testimony by economic experts for the trade center owners and for the airlines linked to the planes that were hijacked in the attacks. The non-jury trial was held to decide whether the owners could collect more than the nearly $5 billion they've already received toward reconstruction.
In ruling against developer Larry Silverstein and World Trade Center Properties, the judge cited state laws that bar "windfalls and double recovery on the same loss."
The judge said that though he was ruling against the trade center owners, they deserved credit for spearheading the recovery effort at the 16-acre lower Manhattan site.
"You were dealt a very severe blow," the judge said of the attack, which turned the trade center into an inferno and destroyed the twin towers. Since then, the developer's workers have labored to "create beauty out the ashes of the destruction," he added.
A spokesman for Silverstein Properties said the developer was "deeply disappointed" by the ruling and would appeal but remains committed to the ongoing construction projects on the site.
"We will not rest until we have exhausted every option to assure that the aviation industry's insurers pay their fair share toward the complete rebuilding of the World Trade Center," said the spokesman, Bud Perrone.
During the four-day proceeding, Silverstein's attorneys had insisted that the aviation companies owed at least $3.5 billion for letting hijackers board planes that destroyed three skyscrapers on Sept. 11, 2001: the prominent twin towers and 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story building that caught fire after debris from one of the jet crashes pierced its facade and collapsed hours later.
Attorney Roger Podesta, speaking for companies including United Airlines Inc., US Airways Inc., American Airlines Inc. and its parent company, AMR Corp., had argued that making aviation companies pay would amount to double compensation.
He said an $8.5 billion total recovery would be more than two and a half times the fair value of the buildings that fell.
But attorney Richard Williamson, representing World Trade Center Properties, said damages from the attacks had totaled at least $7.2 billion.
The trade center owners say it has cost more than $7 billion to replace the twin towers and more than $1 billion to replace the third trade center building that fell.
Associated Presscapitals dan savage new world trade center kellen moore octomom stoudemire jordan hill
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