By STEPHANIE ELVERD

(Lisbon) Morning Journal

EAST PALESTINE — Another appeal has been filed in the $600 million class action settlement reached between Norfolk Southern and residents to remedy last year’s train derailment and intentional chemical release — this time by one of the attorneys who helped broker the deal.

Earlier this week, T. Michael Morgan of Morgan & Morgan filed a notice to appeal to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals a ruling by Judge Benita Pearson last month that denied a motion by Morgan regarding the $180 million awarded to the 39 law firms that worked on the case. That motion asked Pearson to pause the payment of the legal fees during an already pending appeal, called into question the distribution of those fees (how much each firm would receive and who would decide such matters) and claimed that Morgan & Morgan was unaware that the attorneys would be paid before residents.

Pearson’s opinion countered all those assertions. She pointed out Morgan did not raise an objection to the preliminary approval in April, which made clear that allocation of the $180 million was to be decided and distributed to the other lawyers by class co-lead counsel Seth A. Katz, M. Elizabeth Graham and Jayne Conroy, and court documents signed by Morgan used the term “quick pay” — a provision that allows class counsel to receive payment for attorney fees and expenses immediately after a final settlement is approved and before appeals are complete.

While the motion clarifies review is to apply “only to the extent they relate to the award of attorneys’ fees,” it further complicates the chances of a quick appeals process that could take several months to a year to be decided. It could potentially take longer if the appellate court’s decision is then appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.

The settlement was initially lauded as a success that co-counsel, including Morgan, called “a fair, reasonable and adequate result for the community on a number of levels, not the least of which is the speed of the resolution.”

While the deal was brokered in breakneck fashion, the settlement screeched to a stop when the first of several class members filed a notice to appeal the final approval Pearson signed off on in September.

With the settlement’s fate now in the hands of Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and its panel of three judges assigned to the case from a pool of 16, Pearson’s role in that process is all but over.

However, Pearson has yet to rule on a motion asking that the appellants — Zsuzsa Troyan, Tamara Freeze, Sharon Lynch, Carly Tunno and Joseph Sheely — be required to post an appeal bond of $850,000 as a financial guarantee to cover court costs and to ward off the use of frivolous motions to prolong the inevitable. If a bond is ultimately required but not paid, the appeal is not necessarily over but the stay preventing the start of direct payments would be. Failing to pay an ordered bond could potentially lead to a complete dismissal of an appeal.

While it is unlikely the appealing residents could come up with such hefty collateral, Morgan & Morgan would have no trouble doing so. Forbes estimates that John Morgan — the founder and CEO of Morgan & Morgan — is worth $1.5 billion. The firm itself is the largest personal injury law firm in the United States with more than 1,000 attorneys, offices in every state and a recorded annual revenue of $2 billion in 2023.

The appeals have halted the payment of direct payments or property damages only. Personal injury payments — up to $25,000 per eligible resident — already have started to be disbursed.