(The following article by Sammy Fretwell was posted on the State website on May 27.)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A settlement to pay victims of January’s train wreck at Graniteville is drawing fire from a New Orleans lawyer, who said in federal court Thursday that he plans to formally object.
Peter Borstell, whose firm has opened an office in Graniteville, said the settlement won’t pay people enough for the damage from the train wreck and chlorine leak.
Norfolk Southern Co. and several prominent law firms want to settle a lawsuit that would compensate people who suffered minor injuries, lost wages or property damage from the accident.
The carefully crafted deal includes a plan to pay people up to $2,000 per home plus $200 per person for each day of evacuation from the Norfolk Southern crash. The agreement does not include more serious injury or wrongful-death claims, which are being handled in separate lawsuits.
Borstell, who said his firm represents 435 people, said “$200 is not enough. The severity of this is being grossly minimized.”
Nine people died and hundreds were injured in the Jan. 6 train wreck, but thousands more were evacuated from their homes.
Joe Rice, lead counsel for lawyers who negotiated the deal, said the agreement is fair. He said the settlement would pay for damages such as those incurred by a Graniteville resident whose pit bull wrecked his house during the evacuation.
A hearing on whether the lawsuit settlement is fair will be held this summer. Federal Judge Margaret Seymour will decide, perhaps today, whether to grant preliminary approval to the settlement, with formal approval considered later in the summer after the hearing.
Rice and Norfolk Southern lawyer Dan White noted that people can choose not to seek money under the agreement, but filing their own lawsuits could make it harder to receive compensation for minor injuries and damage. Norfolk Southern already has assessed about 2,500 claims. It expects to spend about $35 million because of the wreck.