Jury decides Norfolk Southern should pay for the $600 million settlement in 2023 Ohio derailment

FILE - This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2023. Photo by Gene J. Puskar /AP

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The company that owned the railcar that caused the devastating East Palestine train derailment in 2023 won’t have to help pay for the $600 million settlement Norfolk Southern agreed to with residents.

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An Ohio jury decided Wednesday that GATX isn’t liable for the settlement even though the failure of a bearing on its railcar carrying plastic pellets caused the pileup on Feb. 3, 2023. GATX has maintained Norfolk Southern operated and inspected the train and all the cars and was responsible for delivering the cargo safely.

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“GATX is pleased with the trial outcome, which affirms what we have known for some time: Norfolk Southern alone is responsible for the derailment and resulting damage in East Palestine,” the company said in a statement.

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Norfolk Southern called the verdict disappointing but said it won’t affect the railroad’s commitments to everyone affected by the derailment.

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“For more than two years, Norfolk Southern has paid the costs related to the derailment while acknowledging and acting on our own responsibility for the accident. Our belief has always been that other companies, like GATX, who share in that responsibility should also be held to account,” the railroad said in a statement.

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After the train derailed in East Palestine, an assortment of chemicals spilled and caught fire. Then 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 area and forcing evacuations.

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Norfolk Southern lost a similar lawsuit last year when it tried to force GATX and OxyVinyls, which made the vinyl chloride, to help pay for the environmental cleanup after the derailment that has cost the Atlanta-based railroad more than $1 billion. It made similar arguments in this trial.

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These lawsuits have no effect on how much money residents or the village of East Palestine will receive from their settlements with the railroad. This cases only affect which company writes the check.

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Last week, OxyVinyls agreed to a settlement with Norfolk Southern in this lawsuit over the class-action settlement after the railroad’s lawyers raised questions about the inconsistent information the chemical company provided about whether it was necessary to perform the vent-and-burn operation and release the vinyl chloride. The details of that settlement weren’t released.

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The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed in its investigation that the vent-and-burn operation 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.

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The railroad said GATX should have done more to take care of its railcar, particularly after it was surrounded by floodwaters, which could have damaged its bearings.

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But 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.

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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 little time to stop the train.

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