Landlords Daniel and Drew Huff, whose properties saw a surge in vacancies, argue that many tenants fled due to the environmental contamination or faced job losses linked to the spill. Additionally, new tenants were deterred from moving into the area because of lingering concerns about health and safety risks.
“People couldn’t stay because of health issues, job uncertainty, and the fact that the environmental risk was just too great,” the plaintiffs claimed in their suit.
Failures to Respond, Escalating Damage
The plaintiffs also accuse Norfolk Southern of slow and inadequate response in managing the chemical disaster. According to the suits, Norfolk Southern violated federal regulations by waiting two hours before alerting the federal government to the spill, and failed to warn first responders about the hazardous chemicals involved. The railway company’s decision to conduct a controlled burn in an effort to speed up cleanup only exacerbated the contamination, the plaintiffs argue.
Businesses like Unity Tube, Birddoghill Kennel, and McKim’s Honeyvine LLC also claim they suffered severe setbacks due to the derailment. They allege lost customers, damaged reputations, and operational disruptions that have left them struggling to recover.
An Expanding Legal Battle
This latest wave of lawsuits is not Norfolk Southern’s first legal challenge tied to the derailment. In March 2023, a $150 million suit was filed by CeramFab against the railway company, with Conlin’s firm having previously filed another $500 million lawsuit related to the incident. Conlin emphasized that many plaintiffs chose to opt out of the class action settlement because their damages were too specific and severe to be fairly compensated within the settlement’s framework.
