Gentilly Tank-Car Fire: $850 Million Punitive Verdict for 8,000 New Orleans Residents

On September 9, 1987, a pressurized railroad tank car carrying roughly 30,000 gallons of butadiene caught fire at a rail interchange in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. Butadiene is a volatile, carcinogenic chemical used in synthetic rubber production. The blaze burned for approximately 36 hours, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and releasing toxic combustion byproducts across a densely populated area.

Investigation later revealed the fire traced to a misaligned and torn gasket in the tank car, combined with an improperly closed cover and inadequate training for the carman responsible for the equipment. Nine defendants ultimately faced liability claims, including CSX Transportation, chemical shipper Mitsui & Co., and GATX Corp., which had loaded the car.

The class of affected residents grew to approximately 8,047 members. Joseph Bruno and the Bruno & Bruno firm in New Orleans served as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, alongside co-counsel from other firms. The litigation proceeded in multiple trial phases through the 1990s. Phase I, a bellwether damages and class-wide liability trial held in summer 1997, resulted in the jury finding all nine defendants liable for compensatory damages and five defendants liable for punitive damages. CSX alone was assessed $2.5 billion in punitive damages; additional punitive awards against other defendants brought the total to approximately $3.4 billion.

The trial court subsequently reduced CSX's punitive award from $2.5 billion to $850 million. Louisiana's Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed both the liability findings and the reduced damages figure in a 2001 opinion that listed Joseph M. Bruno, David Scalia, and Anthony Irpino of Bruno & Bruno as appellees' counsel. CSX, which had denied owning, loading, or repairing the tank car, appealed further to the Louisiana Supreme Court before agreeing to a settlement in November 2001. The settlement amount was not publicly disclosed; CSX indicated the cost would represent approximately 17 cents per share.

A second appellate opinion in 2005 addressed Phase III individual-plaintiff damages awards for a separate group of 20 class members. That court again affirmed the judgments and again identified Bruno & Bruno as plaintiffs' counsel of record. The litigation spanned nearly two decades from the original incident to its final resolution.