A third lawsuit seeking class-action status has been filed over the Oct. 20 chemical release at the M.C. Tank terminal in north Toledo, according to The Blade, as reported in a summary by The Fostoria Free Press.
The newest suit, Thiede, et al. v. M.C. Tank Transport, Inc., et al., was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against M.C. Tank Transport Inc. and parent company The Kenan Advantage Group Inc., according to the Ann Arbor law firm Dubin Law PLLC, which filed it, The Blade reported Thursday, Oct. 29.
The firm says the suit seeks to represent people who owned, rented, occupied or lived in homes within 15 miles of the Progress Avenue terminal between Oct. 20 and Oct. 23, with separate subclasses for Ohio and Michigan residents, and seeks damages including loss of use of property, evacuation and displacement costs, cleanup costs and lost wages.
It joins two earlier proposed class actions in Lucas County Common Pleas Court: a suit filed Oct. 23 by Toledo business owner Todd M. Hartford and Hartford’s Fencing & Landscaping LLC, reported by 13abc and WTOL 11, and a second suit filed Oct. 26 by a resident.
The cases stem from the Oct. 20 release of glycidyl methacrylate, or GMA, from a storage tank at the terminal at 1266 Progress Avenue. Toledo Fire & Rescue ordered everyone within one mile of the terminal to evacuate and people within three miles to shelter in place, and all evacuation orders were lifted at noon Oct. 23, according to the City of Toledo’s official incident updates.
The claims in all three suits are allegations that have not been proven in court, and no class has been certified in any of the cases. The filing firm also noted that the 15-mile boundary in the newest suit does not mean every property in that area was affected.
What happens next: the federal and county cases will move through early court proceedings, where judges will decide scheduling and, eventually, whether any of the proposed classes should be certified.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA 4.0