The CSX Transportation Co. is urging a U.S. district judge to reject a request for the reinstatement of a class-action lawsuit by Hyndman residents who were evacuated from their homes following an Aug. 2, 2017, derailment of a freight train.

Four residents of Hyndman Borough filed a lawsuit in Bedford County Court of Common Pleas after the derailment resulted in a fire and fumes permeating the air.

The lawsuit was transferred by the railroad to the federal court in Johnstown, at which point the residents asked U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson to certify it as a class action, meaning that it could result in payments to the 1,000-plus residents who were forced from their homes.

Gibson, however, did not reach a decision whether to certify the lawsuit as a class action because on Dec. 9, 2019, he dismissed the legal action, finding in favor of the railroad.

He found that Pennsylvania’s “economic loss doctrine” prohibited financial damages in situations where there was no physical injury or property damages.

The four plaintiffs complained they suffered from “fear and anxiety” as a result of the incident that kept them away from their homes for many days, but the judge ruled those symptoms have not “physically manifested” since the accident and therefore are not viable under the state’s doctrine.

Two weeks ago, the residents countered by asking the judge to reinstate the lawsuit because of a late-2018 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that lessened the impact of the doctrine — providing an exception if the plaintiffs could show negligence on the part of the company.

The residents’ lawsuit contends CSX was negligent in the operation of a 2-mile-long freight train that had faulty brakes and jumped the rail while carrying molten sulfur, propane, asphalt and phosphoric acid residue.

The chemicals, according to the lawsuit, fed the fire that spread toxic fumes throughout the area.

This week, the railroad filed a legal brief asking Judge Gibson to reject the residents’ request to reinstate the lawsuit.

Railroad attorneys T.H. Lyda of Pittsburgh and Scott L. Winkleman of Washington, D.C., argued that the “recent case” cited by the residents, Dittman v. UPMC, “is hardly a new case” and that it cannot be raised now for the first time.

The attorneys for CSX also take issue with the plaintiffs’ argument that the railroad owed a “common law duty” to protect the residents from harm.

And it opposes the residents’ complaint, filed by their attorney, Bryan S. Neiderhiser of Indiana, that they have not had a chance to present the physical and mental damage that resulted as a result of the accident.

The Dittman case involved a situation in which the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center suffered a data breach, releasing personal information of 62,000 employees.

The state Superior Court upheld dismissal of the lawsuit contending the economic loss doctrine barred a class action lawsuit by UPMC employees, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed that ruling that the hospital owed a duty to employees to protect their personal information.

The railroad maintains in its legal brief that the residents of Hyndman cannot raise the Dittman case this late in the process, stating, “This is the quintessential second bite and is not permissible at this stage.”

The company also contends “Dittman does not rework state law, much less address the circumstances of this case.”

CSX finally claims that up to this point, the plaintiffs have not claimed there was personal injury or property damage as a result of the derailment.

“They had every opportunity to provide evidence of any physical injury and property damages in this case. All that was provided were claims of fears and anxiety. This court rightfully concluded the plaintiffs’ claims were barred by the economic loss doctrine,” according to the CSX answer.

No date has been set for legal argument in the case.