(The following article by Tony Cook was posted on the Cincinnati Post website on February 1.)
CINCINNATI, Ohio — Settlement talks stalled Tuesday in the civil lawsuit filed by residents and others impacted by a rail car chemical leak in Cincinnati’s East End last summer.
Attorneys representing residents and businesses and lawyers for the rail and chemical companies failed to reach a settlement in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court by Tuesday’s deadline.
Alan Statman, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs, accused Indiana & Ohio Railroad and Westlake Chemical of stalling the proceedings. “It would be my impression that the defendants are trying to delay the case.”
Jim O’Connell, an attorney for the railroad, said his clients want to interview as many as 40 individuals who were evacuated during the August leak or otherwise affected by it. He said the railroad believes those interviews would prove that class action status is not warranted in the case.
“We generally want to probe very thoroughly the claimed grounds for class certification,” he said.
Statman said those affected by the leak – which caused a three-day evacuation of surrounding areas – number more than 17,000. That includes residents who were evacuated, business owners who had to shutter their operations, employees of those businesses and residents whom the city ordered to stay indoors during the leak.
Both parties in the case have made offers to settle, but Statman said the defendants’ offer was “illusory.”
“It left out 95 percent of all of the residents and businesses,” he said.
O’Connell said his clients are still reviewing a proposal from attorneys representing residents and businesses in the area.
The railroad has already settled independently with more than 1,000 residents and more than 100 businesses, paying out about $2.5 million, O’Connell said.
Statman said the railroad has indicated it settled with about 200 businesses and 2,700 residents.
The railroad and Westlake Styrene, the shipper of the chemical, also have paid about $29,000 to Cincinnati Public Schools. The leak shut down the district’s Riverview East Academy.
Marsh set a Feb. 10 hearing on the defendants’ request for more time to interview those who claim to have been affected by the leak.
A rail car left unattended on a sidetrack for months began leaking styrene vapor Aug. 28 after an inhibitor that keeps the chemical stable expired, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
The leak prompted the evacuation of 800 homes and businesses. The chemical, used to make plastics, synthetic rubber and resins, is a highly flammable liquid hazardous to breathe in gaseous form.
Because of a data entry error at Indiana & Ohio Railroad, Queen City Terminals – the rail car’s intended destination – was not informed of the incoming shipment, according to documents released by the railroad.
Queen City Terminals, however, received a bill from the shipper and informed the railroad about the shipment twice, according to a spokesman for Queen City’s parent company. The railroad did not respond, the spokesman said.
A separate lawsuit the city of Cincinnati filed against the rail and chemical companies is pending.