(The Opelousas Daily World posted the following article on its website on may 14.)
EUNICE, La. — People in Eunice remember the May 27, 2000, Union Pacific Railroad derailment the way the old timers of St. Landry Parish remember the 1927 flood.
A near-panic fell over the city as plums of fire and smoke raised in the sky at 11:48 a.m., and chemicals spilled along the tracks near the country club and into the Eunice Lake. After the flames died and hazardous waste crews began cleaning the disaster site, law suits rained like a Spring thunderstorm.
A group of 21 local lawyers circled the wagon and formed the Eunice Attorneys Group and established the Eunice Train Derailment Litigation Office. The legal group pooled assets for the multi-million dollar class-action law suit against Union Pacific.
“We wanted to give the people in Eunice a choice of having a local group represent them or not,” said attorney Terry Hoychick of Young, Hoychick and Aguillard, “so we formed a limited liability company, and it has worked out very well.”
The lawyers needed one another because of the sheer mass of work generated by the derailment lawsuits. By the March 6 deadline for filing, Hoychick said, the lawyers processed 10,572 claims.
Once a beehive of activity, the litigation processing office in an unassuming building on U.S. 190 next door to Ray’s Bakery has quieted to a crawl.
“The claim center is open in the sense that the doors are unlocked,” Hoychick said. “It is not open to taking in new claims.”
“It’s quieted down a lot since the March 3 deadline passed,” said clerk Hailie Wimberley. “But that’s just the processing. The lawyers are working in negotiations with the railroad, and we’re getting papers ready for court.”
“The phones ring every once in a while,” said clerk Nicole Deville, “but seldom.”
Both Wimberley and Deville said their work with the litigation group has been educational, as well as profitable.
“This has given us an experience in legal situations,” said Deville, “taught us something about the law.
Hoychick said that the case is in appellate court right now but he still has hopes of a settlement. If there is no settlement, then the lawyers will get a trial date.
“Right now, we are simply waiting on the railroad to respond,” he said. “We are optimistic that will have an answer one way or another by the end of the summer.”
The Eunice attorney added that one of the side benefits of working with the other lawyers is that they have gained a new respect and friendship for one another through mutual effort and support.
“We’ve all grown closer in the process,” he said.