23 February 2006
Canadian Pacific Seeks to Throw Out Lawsuits in Minot Case
Minot North Dakota - Canadian Pacific Railway is appealing a decision by a Minneapolis judge
not to dismiss lawsuits filed over a derailment and chemical spill at Minot four years ago.
The railroad is citing a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum, who threw out a claim against BNSF
Railway in an October 2003 Perham, Minn., derailment that damaged a privately owned warehouse.
Rosenbaum said the railroad was immune from legal action under pre-emption, a legal premise by which some businesses under
federal regulation are exempt from lawsuits.
Judge Tony Leung in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis late last year cited a federal magistrate who said there is no intent
in the federal laws to pre-empt personal injury claims stemming from a railroad's actions.
Canadian Pacific wants Leung's decision reversed, based on Rosenbaum's ruling.
Railroad spokesman Pat Pender did not immediately return a telephone call Wednesday seeking comment on the appeal.
Fargo attorney Mike Miller, who is representing hundreds of plaintiffs, said the railroad is "just leaving no rock unturned to try
to avoid the responsibility of paying for the damages and injuries caused to the Minot people."
"The Federal Railroad Safety Act is a law that's designed to make the railroad safer, not to allow them to use it somehow as a
shield against liability and a means of avoiding responsibility," Miller said.
Hundreds of cases are pending against Canadian Pacific in Minnesota and North Dakota over the 18 Jan 2002, derailment on
the west edge of Minot that unleashed a cloud of toxic anhydrous ammonia, killing one man and injuring hundreds of people.
Some cases were settled out of court earlier. Last week, a jury in Minneapolis decided the railroad must pay four people nearly $1.86
million for injuries they suffered as a result of the Minot wreck. The cases were the first to go to trial. The next wave of cases to be
heard in Minneapolis is set for May.
Canadian Pacific also has asked a federal judge in Bismarck to throw out lawsuits filed there. The railroad last fall cited a decision
by the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case involving a November 2000 BNSF Railway derailment and
chemical spill in Scottsbluff, Neb.
Appeals judges upheld a lower court ruling that said violation of a federal regulation or law "is generally not recognized as
negligence" under Nebraska law.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in Bismarck has not yet ruled on the railroad's motion to dismiss.
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