The judge in the multibillion-dollar World Trade Center insurance trial on Monday said one juror "wanted out" of deliberations and asked the parties if they would accept a less-than-unanimous verdict.
Deliberations were put on hold as they entered their sixth day, and lawyers met to decide whether to accept the request by US District Court Judge Michael Mukasey of the Southern District of New York.
The jury is being asked to decide whether a group of insurers led by Zurich-based Swiss Re and Lloyd's of London used an insurance form that defined the towers' destruction on September 11, 2001, as a single event.
Lawyers for Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder on the property, have argued that because the towers were brought down by two separate plane crashes, he should be able to collect roughly double on his $3.5 billion policy.