Illinois Southern District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel
EAST ST. LOUIS — A federal judge will allow farming business Keller Farms to expand its lawsuit against CSX over severe flooding on its property near Caseyville earlier this decade, allegedly caused by debris trapped under a railroad bridge.
On April 9, U.S. District Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel granted a request from Keller to amend its lawsuit to now include claims over two distinct flooding events, in both 2022 and 2024, which the property owners say can be traced back to the same cause.
The judge also cleared Keller to tack on claims for potentially large punitive damages against CSX, on top of their compensatory damages claims related to crop loss and other harm allegedly caused by the flooding.
The legal action between Collinsville-based Keller and CSX has continued since 2024.
At that time, Keller joined with the village of Caseyville to sue CSX in St. Clair County Circuit Court. That filing had come about two years after the Keller property and others in and around Caseyville suffered "devastation" as a result of flooding on July 25-26, 2022.
In that flooding event, heavy rainfall led to the Little Canteen Creek becoming swollen and rising to the point it swamped a flood control levee, releasing floodwaters throughout Caseyville.
According to published reports and court documents, the levee failure was caused by an unnatural buildup of water caused when the creek's flow was stopped by a dam, of sorts, caused by debris that had collected under a CSX railroad bridge for decades.
According to court documents, the debris had not been cleared under that bridge for at least 40 years.
In the lawsuit, Caseyville claimed CSX should be forced to repay taxpayers for the emergency costs incurred responding to the flood, allegedly caused by their alleged failure to take care of the land they owned under and around their bridge.
Keller claimed CSX should be forced to pay them damages for their substantial crop losses caused when the creek overspilled onto their farm fields, among other damages.
In response, CSX removed the lawsuit from St. Clair County state court to federal court in Southern Illinois District Court.
Judge Rosenstengel then rejected CSX's claims that the lawsuit should disallowed by federal law which prevents it, as a railroad, from being sued or having its operations regulated by local governments or landowners trough lawsuits.
The judge ruled that the legal claims at play in the case had nothing to do with how CSX ran its railroad, but rather how it behaved as a landowner towards its neighbors.
Rosenstengel, however, dismissed Caseyville from the case, saying she was barred by legal doctrine from allowing the village of Caseyville to force CSX to compensate the village government and its taxpayers for the costs the village government paid to evacuate residents or otherwise respond to the flooding emergency.
Keller was allowed to continue its lawsuit.
As discovery proceeded in the case, Keller followed that ruling up with a motion to amend its lawsuit, to now include claims over a 2024 flooding incident, as well, and to seek punitive damages, or damages tacked onto a judgment to ratchet up the payout and essentially punish the defendant for their alleged conduct and deter them and others from continuing the pattern.
In response, CSX said the amendment shouldn't be allowed. They argued allowing Keller to widen its case would unfairly "increase the discovery burdens and complexity of this action."
They further argued the punitive damages claim isn't allowed under Illinois law.
Rosenstengel, however, rejected both arguments.
She said disallowing the 2024 claims would be pointless.
"... As Keller Farms correctly points out, if it is barred from bringing its claim based on the 2024 Flood in this action, it would have every incentive to file a separate action and thereby force Defendants to litigate the issue there," Rosenstengel wrote. "So, denying leave to amend would leave Defendants no better off than they are right now."
And the judge said the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, whose decisions are binding on Illinois federal courts, have already ruled that the procedural grounds on which CSX based its motion aren't sufficient to pull the plug on Keller's punitive damages claim.
Keller has been represented by attorney Jason Johnson and Patrick Stufflebeam, of the James Kelly Law Firm, of Peoria.
CSX has been represented by attorney Charles Swartwout, of Reifers Holmes & Peters, of Belleville.
