EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — A new lawsuit blames the East Palestine derailment and toxic-chemical release for seven deaths, including that of a week-old infant.
The suit was announced Monday — two years after the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern derailment — by a trio of law firms on behalf of some 744 plaintiffs. It names Norfolk Southern, railcar leasing companies GATX and Trinity Industries, and the Association of American Railroads among dozens of defendants, and makes claims including wrongful death and civil conspiracy.
Other defendants include the Village of East Palestine and its police and fire departments, various companies that engaged in cleanup of the derailment and chemicals, and medical organizations. The suit says the defendants “have attempted to evade a generation of environmental and health consequences around East Palestine, while minimizing or denying the current and future harm of the contamination.”
The Canton Repository newspaper reports the lawsuit blames the derailment for the death of four residents of East Palestine or Columbiana, Ohio, ages 77 to 83; a 65-year-old resident of South Beaver Township, Pa.; a resident of St. Clair Township, Ohio, for whom other information was not available, and a 7-day-old infant who died in the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital in Boardman, Ohio, in November 2024.
Norfolk Southern declined comment on the suit, the Repository reports. The newspaper also says at least a dozen new federal lawsuits relating to the derailment have been filed since Jan. 30.
In a press release from Just Well Law of Austin, Texas — one of three firm representing the plantiffs — lawyer Kristina S. Baehr says “the families we represent are left with troubling, unanswered questions and the consequences of this conspiracy for their health and their lives. There has been no real accountability in the last two years.”
Norfolk Southern recently reached a $22 million settlement with East Palestine over claims by the village regarding the derailment [see “East Palestine, Norfolk Southern reach …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 28, 2025]. The railroad reported in its fourth-quarter earnings report that it has spent more than $1.6 billion in addressing the aftermath of the derailment, including the cleanup and legal costs.
