James E. Beasley, who died Saturday at age 78 in a Philadelphia hospital, was an attorney who won a $104 million verdict against Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein on behalf of the estates of two men who perished in the World Trade Center on September 11. The verdict, the first against perpetrators of 9/11 violence, remains unpaid.

By the time the verdict was rendered, in May of 2003, the United States government had already confiscated nearly $2 billion in Iraqi assets that it had previously frozen. The money was earmarked for the reconstruction of Iraq, and was therefore unavailable to plaintiffs.

The most contentious part of the lawsuit involved establishing a direct connection between Iraq and Mr. bin Laden and Al Qaeda. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer in New York wrote that the victim’s lawyers “have shown, albeit barely… that Iraq provided material support to bin Ladin and al Queda,” and that Iraq supported or collaborated on the 9/11 attacks.

The suit was brought on behalf of the estates of two Pennsylvanians who worked at the World Trade Center, George Eric Smith, 38, an analyst for SunGuard Asset Management, and Timothy P. Soulas, 36, a senior managing director and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities.

According to Beasley’s son, James E. Beasley Jr., also a lawyer in his father’s firm, the plaintiffs will continue to seek compensation in courts abroad.

It was not surprising that 9/11 victims would seek out the Beasley Firm of Philadelphia, because Beasley was widely considered one of the top plaintiff’s litigators in the country. In a 48-year career, he won scores of million-dollar verdicts against doctors, hospitals, manufacturers, governments, and newspapers.

Among Beasley’s best-known cases was a $907 million judgment against onetime Philadelphia hippie Ira Einhorn on behalf the family of Holly Maddux, whom Einhorn beat to death in 1977.

Beasley also won two major libel verdicts against the Philadelphia Inquirer, and represented survivors in the collapse of Pier 34 in the Delaware River in 2000. He once sued the Washington Redskins for not maintaining its stadium turf correctly on behalf of running back George Nock, who injured his knee while receiving a pass from Red skins quarterback, Billy Kilmer.

He was author of a standard legal text, “Products Liability and the Unreasonably Dangerous Requirement.”

Beasley was born in Buffalo, N.Y., and grew up in poverty in West Philadelphia, Pa. After lying about his age and enlisting in the submarine service in World War II, he worked as a motorcycle cop in Palm Beach, Fla., and a truck driver and Greyhound bus driver before returning to high school.

He became a major benefactor of Temple University Law School, and when he gave his alma mater the largest endowment in the university’s history the law school was renamed the James E. Beasley School of Law.

A 1990 article in the law school’s alum ni magazine described Beasley as combining “the courtliness of a southern gentleman with a hint of riverboat gambler.”

Beasley’s courtliness left him, though, when he contemplated filing the 9/11 suit despite a moratorium on such suits that had been instituted by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. “These suckers are not entitled to a moratorium,” Beasley told the Washington Times in October, 2001, shortly after he first filed suit against the terrorists.

A man of great energy, Beasley’s hobby was stunt flying. He was a member of the Six Diamonds Aerobatic Flight Team, and he and his son owned a pair of vintage WW II P51 fighters that they flew in air shows.