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Judge rejects CP challenge to Lac-Mégantic settlement
Join the discussion on the following article:
Judge rejects CP challenge to Lac-Mégantic settlement
The CP may not have been involved with the MM&A train at the time of the wreck however as the CP is the Company that originated the train and INSPECTED it and the cargo as being safe to transport it also bears some blame for not checking the crude oil to ensure it was correctly identified. Which, unfortunately it wasn’t.
Either way cp gotta pay no matter what, and I heard that the hgic at cp is a cheap skate so any amount against cp will be huge in his eyes, oh well! No amount of money will replace 47 people so any amount will never be enough. (Head Guy in Chage) btw.
@Lawrence…at the time the crude was sent from North Dakota, it was labeled correctly for the presumed volatility…not until just this year(2015) did the oil industry test Bakken crude and find it is the most volatile crude oil currently being produced.
@Britt, yes Hunter H. Harrison is a cheap skate, but technically CP has a legitimate beef about the portion of the settlement that they are being required to pay, it shouldn’t be anywhere close to the amount that is being put in to the fund by MMA, and the 3 oil companies, nor should it be 1/5 the total dollar amount. The proper way to do the equity distribution is do measure it in cost of failure. I’d say CP should owe about 1/10 of the total amount of the claim fund…so about $33 million, give or take a few million.
Why is GE on the hook?
The cause of the wreck has been identified as equipment failure (the fire on a locomotive) and human failure (not enough handbrakes set up to hold the train). I don’t quite understand what CP had to do with either causative factor. They knew the train held crude oil; but by the time it wrecked, it was a long way from North Dakota. Mr. McFarlane pointed out that " at the time it was sent from North Dakota it was labeled correctly." If that is correct, seems to me CP isn’t to blame for anything they did.
CP didn’t do anything wrong. Neither did MM&A. But as in most wrecks or crashes involving trains, the damn lawyers are going to blame the railroad somehow. Lawyers are like Jessie James, when asked why he robbed banks: Because that’s where the money is!
This sets a terrible legal precedent if it survives appeals. CP did nothing wrong. The commodity was mislabeled by the shipper. Will railroads, in order to avoid this kind of judgement, be required to hire chemists to test every liquid carload they carry?