CHICAGO — The family of a Georgia couple killed in last year’s derailment of the Empire Builder near Joplin, Mont. — while on a trip celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary — filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court on Monday alleging Amtrak and BNSF were responsible for the fatal accident.
The suit was filed by a Philadelphia-based law firm on behalf of the family of Donald and Marjorie Varnadoe, killed in the Sept. 25, 2021, derailment [see “Victims identified in ‘Empire Builder’ derailment,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 27, 2021], which also represents the family of the accident’s other fatality, 28-year-old Zach Schneider of Fairview Heights, Ill.
Lawyer Jeffrey P. Goodman of the law firm Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky claimed in a press release that the accident location “has an over 40-year history of derailments” and that “Amtrak and BNSF failed to learn from lessons of the pass.”
A Chicago-area law firm has previously filed a number of lawsuits related to the derailment and indicated it will seek to overturn the arbitration clause contained in Amtrak tickets [see “Chicago firm files four more suits …,” News Wire, Oct. 8, 2021].
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