A Norfolk Southern freight train pulls through the Northside of Pittsburgh on Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

By Stephanie Elverd

Special to The Times

EAST PALESTINE — The East Palestine school district doubled down in court documents on claims that Norfolk Southern reneged on promises made and accused the railroad of intentionally misleading the district.

The documents were filed July 30 in Youngstown’s District Court in response to Norfolk Southern’s motion to dismiss portions of the multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by East Palestine Schools in April over failing to follow through on a $30 million community wellness center and reimburse the district for expenses related to the 2023 train derailment. The district claims the railroad made promises it did not intend to keep and then broke off communications after the one-year statute of limitations had passed.

“The schools took Norfolk Southern at its word,” wrote Ashlie Case Sletvold of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, the firm representing the district. “They had no reason to suspect Norfolk Southern would not follow through on its promises until it failed to compensate for derailment costs and breached its promise to fund the community center.”

FILE - Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the night before burn in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

“The schools were induced by these promises to forego filing suit within one year,” Sletvold said, adding “to now argue the schools’ claims are time barred would ignore the schools’ reasonable reliance and reward Norfolk Southern for the misrepresentations of its successful PR campaign.”

According to East Palestine Schools, conversations between the railroad and the district concerning the wellness center were held on a regular basis throughout 2023, 2024 and into 2025, before slowing and then stopping completely. The district maintains the concept for the proposed wellness center advanced past talks — a contractor and architect were hired by Norfolk Southern, soil samples were taken, the location for the center was chosen and a decision was made by Norfolk Southern that athletic facilities would have to be relocated.

Norfolk Southern executives flew from Atlanta and took school officials to other wellness centers in the area that had been built by the same local contractor hired by the railroad. Norfolk Southern asked the district to form a steering community, which it did, and encouraged input from students, which they offered.

The railroad admitted in its motion to dismiss that school grounds were surveyed and that school officials did travel with railroad executives to see another community center but called it merely “a field trip.” Norfolk Southern argued none of those things equates to a binding agreement.

Sletvold disagreed, noting the steering committee consisted of 27 members that gathered agreements from 24 businesses, programs and institutions to be part of the center.

“School employees expended time and effort in obtaining these agreements, working with Norfolk Southern agents in planning the center, and have suffered reputational harm as a result of Norfolk Southern’s breach,” she wrote. “The schools refrained from utilizing the property earmarked for the community center. As a result of Norfolk Southern’s failure to follow through on this promise, the schools lost trust, goodwill and standing in the community.”

From the beginning, the district has maintained the idea for the wellness center was entirely Norfolk Southern’s. Now the district sees it as a strategic move as the railroad faced a public relations nightmare in the wake of the rail disaster and intentional burning off of 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride over the village.

“Norfolk Southern did nothing out of the kindness of its heart — it acted in its corporate interests,” Sletvold wrote. “The public relations campaign Norfolk Southern launched in the disaster’s wake was calculated to make Norfolk Southern appear to be a good corporate citizen, ‘making it right’ to the community by cleaning up its mess and ‘helping East Palestine recover and thrive.’ Norfolk Southern knew it would benefit from the promise to fund the community center because it would help counter negative press, offset the harm to its reputation, enhance business interests and deter litigation by the schools.”

Sletvold also argued against the railroad’s motion to strike references to a National Transportation Safety Board report that cast the railroad in bad light and called into question both the necessity of and motive behind the vent and burn of five tank cars containing vinyl chloride.

The motion to strike cites federal law that states that “no part of report of (the NTSB) related to an accident or an investigation of an accident, may be admitted into evidence or used in a civil action for damages resulting in matters mentioned in the report.”

However, Sletvold pointed out that the railroad itself used the NTSB report during its recent trial that asked that GATX (the company that owned the rail car that caused the derailment) and OxyVinyls (the company that owned the vinyl chloride being transported) help pay the $600 million class action settlement that was agreed upon in April 2023. The jury found the railroad solely responsible for the payout.

“Notably, Norfolk Southern’s motion does not contest the truth of the allegations it seeks to strike,” Sletvold wrote. “Indeed, Norfolk Southern cannot because it relied on many of these factual allegations in its recent contribution trial.”

In the railroad’s partial motion to dismiss the district’s complaint, Norfolk Southern also asked that the district’s claims of loss of property tax revenue based on anticipated diminished home values and loss of income tax revenue based on now-closed businesses be tossed.

The district, however, maintains a direct link exists between lost revenue and the rail disaster.

“The schools’ alleged damages are directly related to the derailment and subsequent vent-and-burn by Norfolk Southern,” Sletvold argued. “Absent those two events, the schools’ property would not be contaminated, perception of the community as contaminated by dangerous chemicals would not exist, fewer students would seek open enrollment in other districts or relocate, and the revenue generated by local taxes the schools depend upon would not be negatively impacted.”