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EAST PALESTINE -- In its response to Norfolk Southern's motion to dismiss parts of the lawsuit brought against it by East Palestine Schools, the district doubled down on its claims that the railroad reneged on promises made and accused the railroad of intentionally misleading the district.
In the most recent court documents filed July 30 in Youngstown's District Court, East Palestine Schools -- which filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Norfolk Southern on April 30 for failing to follow through on a $30 million community wellness center and reimburse the district for disaster expenses -- allege the railroad made promises it did not intend to keep and then broke off communications after the one-year statute of limitations had passed.
"The schools took Norfolk Southern at its word," wrote Ashlie Case Sletvold of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, the firm representing the district. "They had no reason to suspect Norfolk Southern would not follow through on its promises until it failed to compensate for derailment costs and breached its promise to fund the community center."
Because of those promises, Sletvold said "the schools were induced by these promises to forego filing suit within one year" and added "to now argue the schools' claims are time barred would ignore the schools' reasonable reliance and reward Norfolk Southern for the misrepresentations of its successful PR campaign."
According to East Palestine schools, conversations between the railroad and the district concerning the wellness center were held on a regular basis throughout 2023, 2024 and into 2025, before slowing and then stopping completely. The district maintains the concept for the proposed wellness center advanced past talks -- a contractor and architect were hired by Norfolk Southern, soil samples were taken, the location for the center was chosen and a decision by Norfolk Southern that the athletic facilities would have to be relocated was made. Norfolk Southern executives flew from Atlanta and took school officials to other wellness centers in the area that had been built by the same local contractor hired by the railroad
to build one in East Palestine.