A key ruling on class-action status could come by the end of the year in a closely watched lawsuit against the top U.S. freight railroads for allegedly colluding to inflate fuel surcharges by billions of dollars, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Two days of oral arguments on the bid for class-action status began Wednesday and are slated to continue Thursday before Judge Paul Friedman in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The top four U.S. freight railroads -- Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and BNSF -- are defendants in the case.
The railroads, which have been unsuccessful in efforts to get the case dismissed, have vehemently denied the allegations.
Attorneys for the railroads will present their arguments Thursday opposing class-action status for the lawsuit, in the wake of arguments Wednesday by Stephen Neuwirth, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in favor of it.
Seven small shippers have been named as plaintiffs in the suit. If the case is certified as a class action, however, any shipper during the period of the allegations -- ranging from mid 2003 through 2008 -- would be a member of the class and potentially eligible for damages.
The Journal of Commerce reports that the challenge began years ago in separate cases around the country against the way the largest Class I railroads developed and levied charges for fuel use. Shippers alleged the railroads coordinated their fees and violated antitrust law in the process, while the railroads denied the charges and insisted they set their fuel fees in accordance with the law.
In 2007, 18 cases were combined into a single one, to be handled by the D.C. District Court.
The complaint targeted surcharges applied from July 1, 2003, through Dec. 31, 2008. Since then, Kansas City Southern Railway and the Association of American Railroads were been dropped from the case.
(The preceding article is based on published reports by the Wall Street Journal and the Journal of Commerce.)
