Anyone can file a lawsuit claiming negligence, regardless of how shameless the lawsuit's allegations may be.
The developer's lawsuit was dismissed over different grounds. He'd already been paid by his insurers, and was trying to double dip:
The judge said that if the case proceeded, Silverstein would basically be compensated twice for the same losses, which is against the law in New York State.
Cantor? A bunch of dirtbags for pursuing this in my opinion... They'd been sued earlier by Silverstein for refusing to pay the rent for Aug 01 to Sep 10.
Before you start pointing fingers at the judge, you might want to note that Cantor Fitzgerald had tried to sue the contractors, but that part of the lawsuit was thrown out by the court.
It had also been ruled from the bench that C-F couldn't seek damages beyond ~$100M for actual damages -- they'd been seeking between $400M and $1B as compensation for lost future profits.
The only reason this part of lawsuit remained was the simple fact that airlines *were* responsible for the security checkpoints, and to ensure that the contractors were doing their job.
Had it gone to a jury, my guess is that AA would have been acquitted. Box cutters weren't illegal, and all the procedures mandated at the time appeared to have been followed. The only possible argument I could think of would have been that the crew was negligent for opening up the cockpit door. And there's nobody alive who knows if they did or didn't.
But it also would have dredged up a pretty dark chapter in the airline industry. I'm not sure it would have been in anyone's interest to go to court, and settling, however distasteful, means that it's done. Over with. Not to be relived again, which is fine with me. I barely watch TV the month before the anniversary.
Bottom line is the $135M is coming from the liability insurers, not AA. I don't lose a lot of sleep over an insurance company having to pay out a claim, given how much they charge...
Being a person of faith, I also believe the people who continued to pursue this lawsuit for the past 10+ years will answer for that eventually, as will the terrorists.
And no, their families can't file. The statute of limitations ran out years ago...