LISBON — Two combined lawsuits involving more than 800 parties filed in Franklin County earlier this year claiming wrongful death, nuisance and negligence over the East Palestine train derailment and chemical fire landed in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Thursday morning.

Clerk of Courts personnel are still working on entering the names into the computer system for the case transferred to Columbiana County from Franklin County after a change of venue was granted recently when a defendant argued that the event happened in Columbiana County.

The list of plaintiffs includes area residents who opted out of the huge class action lawsuit that had been filed and settled in federal court, along with some area residents who opted in, with addresses from East Palestine, Negley, New Waterford, Salineville, Rogers, Salem, Columbiana, Leetonia, Petersburg, Boardman, East Liverpool, the communities of Enon Valley, Rochester, New Galilee, Beaver Falls and Bessemer in Pennsylvania and Chester, W.Va. There’s even an address in Elgin, Texas.

The list of 52 defendants is led by Norfolk Southern and includes chemical firms, environmental cleanup firms, refuse companies, health entities such as Mercy Health and Quest Diagnostics and local governmental entities. The local defendants include the Village of East Palestine,

the East Palestine Police and Fire Departments, East Palestine City Schools, Columbiana Exempted Village School District, Columbiana County General Health District and Columbiana County Board of Commissioners.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of allegedly failing in a duty to protect the public or warn of the known dangers the released chemicals presented. The two school districts allegedly “chose to fail to properly have their schools remediated following the aftermath of the derailment. This subjected their students to further unnecessary chemical exposure.”

The lawsuit accused the Columbiana County Health District of allegedly “misleading the residents to the side effects, symptoms, and other related health issues that were a direct and proximate result of the chemicals spilled.”

“Defendants continued to tell plaintiffs, the community of East Palestine, and the surrounding areas that it was safe, the soil was safe, the air was safe, and the water was safe. Unfortunately, those statements were fake news,” the document said.

Claims outlined in the complaint include negligence, nuisance, strict liability, trespass, punitive damages, loss of consortium, wrongful death, survivorship, civil conspiracy and Medicaid subrogation. The wrongful death claim alleges that Margie Mae Lewis, Margo Zuch, Randy Swogger, John R. Moore, Viola Noel, Edward Zins and Carlyn Tigelman all died from the aftermath of the derailment.

The lawsuit went into great detail about what happened the night a Norfolk Southern train derailed while carrying hazardous chemicals through the village of East Palestine after traveling through Salem, Leetonia, Columbiana and New Waterford. The lawsuit talked about the fire and the controlled burn and subsequent cleanup, or in the opinion of the lawsuit, failure to properly clean up.

“Norfolk chose to fail in keeping the community of East Palestine and surrounding areas safe from knowing and preventable harm. The derailment was avoidable and the direct result of Norfolk’s practice of putting its own profits above the health, safety, and welfare of the communities in which Norfolk operates,” the lawsuit said.

The complaint was filed by attorneys for Bressman Law in Dublin, which is near Columbus, Just Well Law in Austin, Texas and the Keenan Law Firm in Miramar Beach, Fla., with monetary damages sought. The case has been assigned to Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Washam.

(Staff Writer Stephanie Elverd contributed to this report)