CSX Transportation Inc. says proposed class-action lawsuits filed just one month after a Maryville freight train derailment that sent poisonous smoke into the air and more than 100 people to the hospital are nothing more than money grabs.
The railroad company is asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley to toss out of U.S. District Court three proposed class-action lawsuits - two by a handful of residents of the evacuation zone affected by the July incident and one by a handful of first responders. The judge on Friday agreed to a preliminary proposal to join the trio of lawsuits into one consolidated case.
A broken axle on a single rail car hauling 24,000 gallons of a toxic chemical derailed the 57-car train, causing a fire that burned for 19 hours, authorities said.
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