By P.J. D’Annunzio, From The Legal Intelligencer

In the wake of the Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia that, according to public officials, resulted in the deaths of at least seven people and injured more than 200, lawsuits seem all but certain to be filed.

But attorneys who spoke to The Legal on Wednesday said that until federal investigations are complete, the direction of the litigation will remain unclear.

The train traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York went off the rails at a sharp turn in Philadelphia’s Port Richmond section around 9 p.m. Tuesday night, according to media reports. The train was carrying 238 passengers and five crew members, media reports said, and well over 100 were reported to have received hospital treatment as of press time. Calls to Amtrak’s media relations office were met with repeated busy signals.

Personal injury lawyers said any potential claims made against Amtrak would rely on whatever the National Transportation Safety Board uncovers in its investigation. That investigation, according to attorneys, will likely focus on engineer error, drug testing, track defects, faulty equipment, and what has been recorded by the “black box.”

Saltz Mongeluzzi Barrett & Bendesky co-founder Robert Mongeluzzi, who has experience in railroad accident litigation, said he has already been contacted by a prospective client.

“Anytime there’s a train derailment on a speed-limited sharp curve, the primary thing you’re going to look at is excessive speed,” Mongeluzzi said of the focus of an investigation. “The fact that the worst, or one of the worst, train disasters in U.S. history occurred there in 1943 and killed 79 people speaks volumes about the safety of the curve.”

If disregarding the speed limit was a factor in the derailment, Mongeluzzi said, Amtrak could face greater civil penalties.

“The speed itself raises an issue of punitive damages and whether it would be recoverable in this case,” Mongeluzzi said. “I believe that they can be.”

Matthew Casey of Ross Feller Casey said that without an examination of the facts uncovered, it’s hard to make predictions just yet.

“The devil will be in the details of the investigation,” Casey said. “Historically … these kinds of derailments have involved, at least in some respect, poor track maintenance.”

Casey said that in similar rail accident cases, Amtrak has had to cover the liability of other companies that own or lease the tracks and have a responsibility to maintain the tracks.

“But, of course, at this point no one knows what caused the derailment,” he added.

Thomas R. Kline of Kline & Specter said any litigation that takes place will most likely occur in Pennsylvania federal court, with all cases consolidated.

“In mass disasters, there’s always a consolidation of the cases, although there could be more than one venue,” Kline said. “These cases will likely be litigated in federal court, and if that’s the case there will be consolidation in one venue.”

Mongeluzzi agreed that the litigation will probably end up in federal court.

“The position that Amtrak is going to take is that since the U.S. government owns more than 51 percent of Amtrak, it requires being in federal court,” he said.

Both Mongeluzzi and Kline likened the case to the Pier 34 collapse near Penn’s Landing in May 2000, a case Mongeluzzi’s firm handled.

Though there will be coordination and consolidation, Kline said the litigation will not be a class action, nor will there be a settlement after two or three cases are tried.

“This is not akin to a pharma litigation where there are tens of thousands of cases with the need for bellwether trials,” Kline said. “This is much more akin to the BP disaster … where there are a smaller number of claims, yet a large enough number of claims for consolidation.”

But Kline reiterated that potential plaintiffs and their families are still reeling from the accident and the investigation has only just been launched.

“We don’t know any of the facts at this point, like the conduct of the engineer who was involved. There needs to be drug testing and a variety of other things,” Kline said.

Lawyers who have represented Amtrak in litigation in the past, including Joseph Bottiglieri of Bonner Kiernan Trebach & Crociata in Washington, D.C., and Yuri Brunetti of Landman Corsi Ballaine & Ford in Philadelphia, did not return calls seeking comment.

Maureen Rowan of Philadelphia-based Gallagher & Rowan, a firm that represented Amtrak previously, deferred comment to the company’s media office.

Additionally, in the past Amtrak has called upon large law firms such as Philadelphia-based Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to defend it against other types of claims.

IMAGE:

Union Station, Washington, D.C. May 13, 2015. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL.

For more on this story go to: http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202726321945/Lawyers-Eye-Details-in-Wake-of-Amtrak-Derailment#ixzz3a7Aknml6