(The following story by Emily Hagedorn appeared on the Louisville Courier-Journal website on December 17.)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The $3 million settlement in the class-action lawsuit filed after the January 2007 CSX train derailment in Brooks has been finalized.
The agreement is “fair, adequate and reasonable” and “in the best interests” of the settlement class, according to U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell’s order, which was filed Monday.
CSX and General Electric — which was added to the suit after CSX claimed that a defect in a GE-owned railcar caused the accident — denied any wrongdoing in the settlement.
In the accident, 25 train cars derailed off Huber Station Road. The train was carrying hazardous chemicals, and several cars caught fire. Some residents were hospitalized after inhaling smoke and fumes.
The deadline to file claims in the class-action suit was Nov. 28.
Eligible people must have lived or worked between 1,500 feet and 3.5 miles of the derailment site at any time from Jan. 16 to Jan. 19, 2007. The most any plaintiff can receive is $10,000. The plaintiffs’ lawyers will be paid $1 million from the settlement, along with $88,787.45 in costs that were incurred during the case, the final order said.
The agreement does not say when money will be issued to claimants.