YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Five lawyers from John Simmons’ firm in Alton represent residents of East Palestine, Ohio, who sued Norfolk Southern railroad at U.S. district court over the flaming, toxic wreck on Feb. 3.
Lawyers with the Simmons Firm joined the case in association with Ohio lawyers who filed the first suit over the crash on Feb. 7.
Other teams of lawyers filed seven suits at district court in the next ten days, and Norfolk Southern removed another from Columbiana County court to district court.
All nine suits propose to certify class actions.
District Judge Benita Pearson will need to sort out similarities from differences in the suits and will likely appoint a leadership committee from the throng of lawyers on her docket.
Andrew Thompson of Shapero Roloff in Cleveland signed the complaint in the first suit for plaintiffs Harold Feezle, Susan Schuefele, and David Schuefele.
The complaint also carried the names of firm leader Neal Shapero and Nicholas Amato of Wellsville, Ohio.
Thompson wrote that their clients were among hundreds exposed to toxic chemicals, fumes, and carcinogens.
He alleged negligent operation of the train, defects in the track system, and defects in one or more of the cars.
He proposed a class action for all who evacuated their homes by police authority, operated businesses in the area, or suffered injuries.
“Defendants engaged in abnormally dangerous activity in violation of federal, state, and local laws and regulations rendering it strictly liable for any resulting damages,” Thompson wrote.
He asked for an order barring Norfolk Southern from removing property that would be useful in determining the cause of the derailment and the spill.
He also asked for an order barring the railroad from destroying computer records of events regarding the train for 72 hours preceding the incident.
Thompson asked for an order barring any attempt to induce anyone to sign a release of claims.
Further, he asked for an order directing the railroad to take all reasonable and sufficient steps to correct the existing conditions.
Simmons lawyers Gary DiMuzio and Jayne Conroy of Alton, John Wetmore and Thien Trong of New York City, and Justin Presnal of College Station, Texas then entered appearances.
Other suits proposed class zones extending 15, 20 and 30 miles from the wreck.
A 30 mile zone would capture hundreds of thousands of persons in areas including Youngstown, outskirts of Pittsburgh, and the tip of West Virginia.
Some plaintiffs sought to recover a loss of property value and one alleged that real estate website Zillow already reduced the value of his home by about $30,000.
Some suits called for present and future medical monitoring.
One plaintiff claimed Norfolk Southern has a market value of $57 billion and it made $3.3 billion in net income last year.
The litigation involves two nationwide injury firms besides the Simmons firm, including Morgan and Morgan of New Orleans and Weitz and Luxenberg of New York City.