By WILLIAM SHERMAN and MAGGIE HABERMAN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Hundreds of workers who got sick after working on the World Trade Center Recovery and cleanup are dropping their lawsuits against the city, officials said yesterday.

Instead, many are opting to apply to the federal September 11th Victime Compensation

Fund of 2001, which will stop accepting new claims in less than four weeks.

Of the 1,700 Ground Zero-related injury claims the city has received, about 400 have been formally withdrawn, said Kenneth Becker, who heads the city corporation counselˆ¢s office division dealing with Trade Center cases.

That could save the cash strapped city millions of dollars because people who accepts settlements from the fund can not file lawsuits.

While the fundˆ¢s rule say that workers had to have visited a doctor within 96 hours of sustaining an injury, many workers got sick months after leaving Ground Zero.

But because the fundˆ¢s special master, Kenneth Feinberg, has agreed to make decisions on a case-by-case basis, the fund is often a safer bet than a courtroom, one lawyer said.

ˆ£How can you compare a certain award versus the uncertainty of¬….litigation?ˆ§ said attorney Michael Barasch, who filed roughly 1,200 Trade Center-related claims against the city. ˆ£This is a win-win situation.ˆ§

Feinberg agreed, saying, ˆ£I think litigating against the city will be very difficult to prove, and the opportunity to apply to the fund and make a cliam and move on is something I would recommend.ˆ§

The families of the 2,976 people killed in the three Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks around the nation are eligible to apply to the fund. Officials expected an additional 3,000 claims from people who said they were injured during the attacks.

Barasch said he expected that most, if not all, of his clients will choose the fund. Becker said it will take several months to see how many of the claims are withdrawn.

Feinberg said his office has received about 1,800 injury claims so far.
One firefighter said the fund was his only sure option.

ˆ£I would have had a hard time suing, because thatˆ¢s the way I am,ˆ§ said the firefighter, who was forced to retire because of debilitating asthama he developed several months after he stopped worhing at Ground Zero. ˆ£I,m not guaranteed to get old and gray.ˆ§

Meanwhile, with the Dec. 22 fund deadline fast approaching and Congress refusing last week to extend it, Feinberg said that 66% of the eligible death claims have been filed-up from less than 50% just five weeks ago.

ˆ£I anticipate [that] by Dec. 22, close to 90% of those eligibleˆ§ will have filed, feinberg told the Daily News.

Still, more than 1,000 families are still debating whether to file. In some cases, people have signed on to try to close that chapter of their livesBut many others hope to use lawsuits to force the government, the airline industry and builders of the world trade center to provide answers about what went wrong.