Trial will determine who will pay $600 million settlement in disastrous
Norfolk Southern derailment
[March 31, 2025] By
JOSH FUNK
Norfolk Southern wants two other companies to help pay for the $600
million class-action settlement it agreed to over its disastrous 2023
train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and the toxic
chemicals that were released and burned.
The railroad filed the motion that is set to go to trial starting Monday
to force the railcar owner GATX and the chemical manufacturer OxyVinyls
to share the cost of the settlement because Norfolk Southern believes
those companies are partly responsible for what happened in East
Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2023.
This lawsuit won't change anything about how much money residents will
receive from the settlement or any payments the village or anyone else
is set to receive because those are all established in various
settlement agreements. This case will only affect which company has to
write the checks to pay for the class-action settlement.
Residents are still waiting to receive most of the money from the
settlement because of pending appeals, although some payments have
started to go out.
An assortment of chemicals spilled and caught fire after the train
derailed in East Palestine. Three days later, officials blew open five
tank cars filled with vinyl chloride because they feared those cars
might explode, generating a massive black plume of smoke that spread
over the town and forced evacuations.
Many residents still worry today about potential health consequences
from those chemicals.
The derailment was the worst rail disaster since a crude oil train
devastated the small Canadian town of Lac-Megantic and killed 47 people
in 2013. It prompted the U.S. to focus on rail safety and reforms, which
were proposed in Congress before stalling without passing.

Norfolk Southern says companies share the responsibility
Norfolk Southern already lost a similar lawsuit last year when it tried
to force GATX and OxyVinyls to help pay for the environmental cleanup
after the derailment that has cost the Atlanta-based railroad more than
$1 billion. It is making similar arguments again to try to get help
paying for the class-action settlement.
“Norfolk Southern alone has paid the costs relating to the derailment
despite ample evidence that other parties share in the responsibility.
This trial is about reinforcing the role shippers and railcar owners
play in transportation safety and ensuring everyone responsible pays
their fair share," the railroad said in a statement.
Norfolk Southern, like most railroads, doesn’t own most of the cars it
hauls, and the railroad says everyone involved in shipping hazardous
chemicals bears some responsibility for ensuring their safety under
federal regulations.
Norfolk Southern argues GATX bears some responsibility for the
derailment because it owned the railcar filled with plastic pellets that
caused the derailment when its bearing overheated, caught fire and
failed that night, sending 38 cars off the rails.
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Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the night
before burn in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J.
Puskar, File)
 Norfolk Southern also said it
believes OxyVinyls should pay because the railroad says chemical
manufacturer provided inconsistent and inaccurate information about
its vinyl chloride before officials decided to release and burn it.
Companies say Norfolk Southern was responsible for safety
Both GATX and OxyVinyls say it would be ridiculous to hold them
responsible for the derailment when Norfolk Southern operated and
inspected the train and all the cars and was responsible for
delivering the cargo safely.
“Norfolk Southern’s claims against GATX are baseless," the railcar
owner said in a statement.
GATX said it complied with all the relevant regulations for taking
care of its railcars. The company said that even if the car was
damaged six years earlier by standing parked in the middle of
floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey, the railroad should have spotted
the problem and repaired it, sending GATX the bill for the repairs.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the crash was caused
by the failure of an overheating bearing on GATX's railcar. The
railroad’s sensors spotted the bearing starting to heat up in the
miles before the derailment, but it didn’t reach a critical
temperature and trigger an alarm until just before the derailment.
That left the crew scant time to stop the train.
Norfolk Southern recommended the vent-and-burn operation to release
the vinyl chloride based partly on information about the chemical
that OxyVinyls had published beforehand suggesting a chemical
reaction could happen and cause the tank cars to explode.
But the NTSB confirmed in its investigation that was unnecessary
because the tank cars were starting to cool off and the railroad
failed to listen to the advice from OxyVinyls' experts or share
their opinions with the officials who made the decision.
“This trial is nothing more than Norfolk Southern’s continued
attempt to shift the blame, attention, and financial responsibility
for its train derailment, response, and vent and burn decision to
anyone other than itself,” the Texas-based company said. “OxyVinyls
did not cause the derailment, its tank cars did not breach, and it
did not make the decision to vent and burn the VCM (vinyl chloride
monomer) cars.”
The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
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