Judge denies class action status for antitrust lawsuit against U.S. Class Is

The denial of class certification means that each plaintiff in a case against all four of the U.S.-based Class I freight railroads must establish its individual claim and prove damages based on its own shipments during the class period.    U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman on Oct. 10 issued an order denying class action status for a decade-old antitrust lawsuit in which a group of rail shippers is accusing the four major U.S.-based Class I railroads of a five-year price-fixing conspiracy.
   In an order that was issued nearly 10 years after the case was transferred to the court, Judge Friedman said that the plaintiffs didn’t managed to establish the requirements for the case to be prosecuted as a class action lawsuit.
   The denial of class certification means that each plaintiff must establish its individual claim and prove damages based on its own shipments during the class period.
   The lawsuit, In re Rail Freight Fuel Surcharge Antitrust Litigation, was filed by a nationwide consortium of rail-freight shippers against the four Class I railroads – BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway – for recovery of damages suffered by shippers because of alleged scheme to impose fuel surcharges between July 1, 2003 and Dec. 31, 2008.
   According to judge’s order, although the plaintiffs have provided “strong evidence of conspiracy and class wide injury,” their “damages regression model is flawed.”
   The court order is not a ruling on the merits of the claims against the railroads.
   Both the plaintiffs or railroads are eligible to appeal the order, but an appeal requires a petition for permission to appeal to be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia within 14 days of the date the order was issued.