(The Associated Press circulated the following article on January 3.)
TAMAROA, Ill. — A lawsuit against the Canadian National Railway over a train derailment that forced hundreds of residents to evacuate this southern Illinois town can continue as a class action case, an appellate court has ruled.
The railroad had appealed a lower court’s ruling that granted class action status to the plaintiffs, which number more than 500, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Joe Leberman. The Mount Vernon-based 5th District Appellate Court’s ruling last week clears the way for all the cases to be heard together.
“We’re certainly very pleased the appellate court agreed we should be a class action case,” Leberman said.
A phone message left Monday for a Canadian National spokeswoman was not immediately returned.
The plaintiffs accuse the company of negligence in the Feb. 9, 2003, derailment in the center of Tamaroa, a town of about 1,000 residents 65 miles southeast of St. Louis. Toxic chemicals aboard the train spilled, forcing hundreds of residents within a three-mile radius to evacuate, some for as many as five days. No one was injured.
Canadian National has said it paid more than 800 households and businesses more than $700,000 in damages in the weeks after the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that rail failure caused the accident, which sent 22 of the train’s 108 cars off the tracks.