YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy in Alton and colleagues from Colorado and Delaware applied for appointment as interim class counsel in train disaster litigation at U.S. district court on March 15.
She encountered resistance from Ohio lawyers who proposed to appoint Ohio lawyers and an Alabama lawyer who claimed his clients don’t belong in any class.
District Judge Benita Pearson will sort it out.
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Conroy and nine other Simmons lawyers represent a client in association with Ohio lawyers who filed the first class action complaint against Norfolk Southern in district court.
On March 8 Pearson ordered Seth Katz of Englewood, Colorado, and Elizabeth Graham of Wilmington, Delaware, to prepare a motion for plaintiff leadership appointments.
Pearson ordered Conroy to file it.
Conroy's motion provided a New York City address, correcting an earlier entry that placed her in Alton.
She proposed to appoint herself, Katz, and Graham as interim class counsel.
She wrote that she negotiated opioid settlements in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.
She offered seven names for an executive committee.
She offered 18 names for a steering committee, including Andrew Schlichter of St. Louis.
She attached a statement of “Team Ohio,” calling for Ohio appointments.
“This case needs an efficient and effective team that understands the community,” they wrote.
Conroy also attached a statement from John Conlin of the Cory Watson firm in Birmingham, who claimed some plaintiffs would never be in classes.
He claimed Pearson shouldn’t place clients who don’t seek class actions under control of leaders who might ultimately have divergent and irreconcilable conflicts.
He claimed Cory Watson represents more than 400 individuals, 200 property owners, and 25 businesses.
He claimed they're adjacent to the railroad and one is within feet.
“This extreme proximity is unlike the plaintiffs in many of the filed actions seeking class certification,” he wrote.
Class zones in some complaints extend to Pennsylvania and one reaches West Virginia.