October 14, 2015
A federal court panel said Tuesday that all of the lawsuits filed thus far in the May derailment of Amtrak Train 188 will be heard by a single judge in Philadelphia, Philly.com reports.
More than 60 personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits have already been filed, more than 30 of which have been filed in federal court in Philadelphia. The rest were initially entered in federal court districts in New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
At the end of June, Amtrak asked a U.S. judicial panel to consolidate lawsuits before a single judge in Philadelphia.
The railroad requested that the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation appoint U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis, who was already overseeing 16 cases stemming from the incident, to handle all existing lawsuits plus "numerous" others it expected to be filed.
Davis has been selected to oversee the cases, according to Philly.com.
Chef Eli Kulp, who owns High Street on Market and Fork in Philadelphia and was severely injured in the derailment, is among those who have filed lawsuits.
Amtrak has said its liability from a single incident is capped at $200 million, under a 1997 federal law.
Read more from Philly.com here.
