Trial Ends with Agreement Over Cleanup By Ronald Drenger Tenants and management of 80 John Street reached a settlement last month in the first landlord–tenant case stemming from Sept. 11 to go to trial. The dispute focused on what kind of environmental cleanup the building needed after the World Trade Center disaster. A judge’s ruling could have affected thousands of other downtown residents in similar disputes. Two other cases, 50 Battery Place and 333 Rector Place, may go to trial this month if tenants and building owners can’t reach an agreement. WSA Management, which runs 80 John Street, had sued 75 rent-striking tenants in December. The settlement, reached after a trial lasting several weeks, calls for WSA to vacuum hallway and elevator floors with a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate) vacuum, to power-wash the building’s north and south facades, and to remove, clean and reinstall apartment air conditioners at residents’ request. The company is not required to do any environmental tests. WSA, which did not admit fault in the case, also agreed to waive rents from Sept. 11 through Sept. 31. It had earlier offered to forego rent only through Sept. 18, the period when the building, four blocks from Ground Zero, lacked basic services. Few tenant association members opposed the settlement. Some said they were unhappy with the terms but feared the cost of further litigation and the possibility that the case could drag on for years on appeal. "I’m very glad we took this to court," said tenant Elizabeth Stapleton, who voted for the settlement. "We’re going to get a cleanup and we wouldn’t have gotten any otherwise." She said she wanted to continue to fight, but knew that many tenant association members would have dropped out if a settlement weren’t reached soon. Cynthia Lane, president of the tenant association, who worked almost full time on the case after losing her job due to the disaster, called the agreement "horrible." Fearing that the building workers would spread dust around the apartments, Lane said she wanted professionals experienced with hazardous materials to clean up. "The quote unquote cleaning will make things worse," she said. Recent test results that were not introduced as evidence, according to Lane, showed unsafe levels of dangerous materials inside air conditioners. "WSA went from zero willingness to settle to offering this agreement, after they saw those results," she said. WSA executives declined to comment, but the company’s law firm released a short statement asserting that "debris and/or dust, if any, at the building did not pose any health hazards to the tenants/occupants." During the trial, environmental experts testifying for the tenants claimed that contaminated World Trade Center dust remained in the building. Residents described health problems, such as nosebleeds, coughing and kidney conditions, that they attributed to the dust. Management had not yet called any witnesses when the settlement was signed. Jack Lester, the tenants’ attorney, supported the agreement. "The primary purpose of the litigation was to secure a cleanup," he said. "In every [World Trade Center-related] case I’ve worked on so far, the settlement—this is the sixth—had a provision for a cleanup beyond that which the government has required or the owner agreed to do voluntarily." "The problem," Lester added, "is that there’s no protocol that says what owners are doing is adequate or inadequate."