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Justices Pass on Bankruptcy Spat over Deadly Quebec Train Derailment

Submitted by jhartgen@abi.org on

The Supreme Court passed on an appeal, raising questions about bankruptcy court jurisdiction arising from a 2013 train derailment in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Justices on Tuesday declined to hear a case brought on behalf of victims who have been seeking to revive lawsuits against Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., one of several companies sued in the disaster. Plaintiffs argued that lower courts improperly applied federal bankruptcy rules to their wrongful-death claims instead of ordinary rules of federal civil procedure governing nonbankruptcy disputes. The distinction resulted in lower courts dismissing their claims against Canadian Pacific.