JOHNSTOWN – CSX Transportation last month dodged a class action lawsuit over a 2017 train derailment in a Bedford County town that prompted an evacuation of hundreds of people that took more than two weeks.
In his 11-page memorandum and order issued Dec. 9, U.S. District Court Judge Kim R. Gibson, on the bench in Pennsylvania's Western District, granted CSX's motion for summary judgment, saying the plaintiffs' claims of negligence and private nuisance are barred under the state's economic loss doctrine bars.
Gibson also dismissed as moot the plaintiffs' motion to certify the class.
Allegations in the case stem from a Aug. 2, 2017, freight train derailment in Hyndman just before 5 a.m. that prompted the evacuation of about 1,000 area residents who were not allowed to return for 18 days.
Among those forced to evacuate were lead plaintiffs in the class action Denora Diehl, Robert Cook, Jennifer Queen and Lorelei Gordon.
The lead plaintiffs in the case claim they are part of a class of people who live within the evacuation area and have an interest in real property in that area at the time of the derailment.
Plaintiffs allege CSX negligently operated the train that derailed and that they and other members of the proposed class were inconvenienced in having to evacuate while the transportation company repaired the derailment site.
Gibson already held that plaintiffs' negligence and nuisance claims to be preempted by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 "to the extent that they are based on allegations regarding the noise, lights and fumes" created by the cleanup, Gibson's memorandum said.
Plaintiffs were left with allegations that the evacuation deprived them of access and use of their properties but that denial of property access without damage to the property would not be enough for a successful damages claim, according to the memorandum.
"Plaintiffs do not allege that the train derailment directly damaged any of their properties or that there was any physical damage to any of their properties at all," the memorandum said. "The denial of access to property without physical harm is an economic loss that is not recoverable under Pennsylvania law."