Lawsuits ongoing four years after Graniteville wreck
(The following story by Mike Gellatly appeared on the Aiken Standard website on January 5.)
GRANITEVILLE, S.C. After the immediate impact of the Graniteville disaster had cleared, remedies were sought from those injured. Many took their loss or anger out through legal means as dozens of lawsuits were filed against Norfolk Southern Railroads and the Norfolk Southern Company.
Since the derailment, 29 personal injury or negligent death lawsuits have been brought to the federal level, demanding damages for those who allege they were injured due to the negligence of the railroad and its employees.
Most of these lawsuits began in South Carolina's Second Circuit but were bumped up to the U.S. District Court level due to the nature of the claims that cross state lines and deal with constitutional issues.
Several of these suits attempted to gain class action status, and one centralized management case was put together to expedite the legal proceedings.
A schedule for the case was set into motion in September 2007 that set evidence gathering and interviews to be conducted throughout the last year. After that, it set a trial date for the case to be set after October 2008. However, there has been no movement in this case since the scheduling order, and many of the cases involved have either been dismissed or settled out of court and dismissed voluntarily. No case has come to a jury trial where Norfolk Southern was found guilty of an injury.
Nine personal injury lawsuits are still active.
Outside of those who were physically injured, Norfolk Southern did compensate those who were put out of their homes but not hurt due to the accident. Area residents were given approximately $2,000 for their inconvenience.
Avondale Mills
The chlorine spill, evacuation and cleanup caused irreparable damage to the already fading mill operated by Avondale. The plant never became operational again.
Avondale demanded $420 million in damages from Norfolk Southern, claiming equipment at the firm's Graniteville facilities was covered with corrosive chemicals, and it would have cost more than the business was worth to clean the buildings and replace the machinery.
In 2006, Avondale Mills Inc. settled with its insurance company, Factory Mills, for $215 million.
The two corporate powerhouses, Avondale and Norfolk Southern, slugged it out for more than a month in court in 2008 - after two years of swapping legal papers - before they reached an undisclosed settlement thought to be in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.
EPA
Adding to Norfolk Southern's legal bill was the United States via the Environmental Protection Agency filing the latest suit against them. The suit demands significant compensation for an alleged violation of the Clean Water Act.
As a result of the wreck, "chlorine discharged from the breached tank car settled upon and was absorbed into Horse Creek, its tributaries and their adjoining shorelines, injuring and killing fish and vegetation," the EPA claimed in filings.
State health and environmental officials said at the time of the wreck that chlorine may have traveled through a storm drain underneath the Avondale Mills textile plant. Several days later, state Department of Health and Environmental Control officials said chlorine levels in Horse Creek had returned to normal levels.
"There is no evidence ... that 'discharges' regulated under the (Clean Water) Act reached 'navigable waters of the United States,'" the railroad's attorneys argued after the suit was filed.
"The complaint is utterly bereft of any factual allegations showing how a punctured tank car containing liquid chlorine was able to discharge at least 10 pounds of chlorine that retained its liquid nature and reached Horse Creek before changing its molecular characteristics and vaporizing."
This case is currently in the evidence gathering - or discovery - stage. No deadline has been set for when it may come to trial.
