Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to a fiery train derailment in February 2023 in eastern Ohio
Per this source, a 25 mile radius includes 585,000 people. That means (before lawyer fees so imagine half in actuality), Norfolk-Southern wants to give $1,000 per person for permanently poisoning not only their property but their body which is now forever scarred. This was filed for approval by the Plaintiff (people hurt) but as shown in the story and simple math show this can't be appropriate for a company with billions in revenue. Unfortunately this may also (not sure about insurance's involvement) represent a third of their cash on hand 2023 Annual Report pdf page 58/their k48. I personally believe this is unjust and would love to hear other opinions and/or other information such as the index number for this (I have not diligently searched/PACER looked, but usually at least one news sources mentions a caption or docket number).
Of course it's not enough. The company is still in business and the owners aren't in jail! They still have all their limbs! We've done nothing to fix the problem.
“It’s not enough” residents keep electing republicans that are hell bent on 1)deregulating these polluting industries 2)declawing the regulatory agencies 3)”getting rid of EPA” and 4)voting against their best interests because OpEn BorDerS!!!!!
Really shitty for you to blame the victims of something like this. There is a lot of propaganda in America and that applies both to the people voting for Republicans and liberals not holding Democrats accountable, like you're doing right now.
My dad owns stock in some train companies. I was looking at their voting stuff recently, and the two I looked at had a vote for safety measures/committees. Both recommended against it. One was voting on raising the worker limit of 2, also recommended against.
If you didn't know, votes are weight by how much stock you own, so if you own the majority, your vote is counted as such. The companies themselves and the major stakeholders (rich people and other companies) are basically voting on themselves, mostly the rich and powerful. The system is straight up corrupt even though it sounds okay on the surface.
What stops a class action, against whatever government that's responsible, for settling for so little. Shouldn't the company be on the hook for everyone's cancer treatment. At the very least.
There is usually an “opt-out” procedure, but it is often a small window(30-60 days), and its unclear what happens if you do (you have to sue individually, and your class action lawyer might not represent you anymore).