YOUNGSTOWN — Kroll Settlement Administration (KSA) has pushed back against a contempt motion filed by class counsel in the East Palestine train derailment case, defending its handling of personal injury payments and arguing that the settlement’s allocation for such claims is insufficient to cover the more than 30,000 filings received.

In an opposition brief filed Nov. 24 in U.S. District Court in Youngstown, Kroll said the $129 million preliminary allocation for personal injury claims may not be enough and noted it warned class counsel of the looming shortfall as early as March 2025. Kroll argued that the settlement agreement anticipated such an issue and included safeguards — including the ability to reallocate unused funds from other categories — to address it.

Class counsel’s contempt motion accuses Kroll of violating the settlement by failing to use a pro rata distribution system. Kroll counters that the settlement and distribution plan required a fixed base payment of $25,000 per claimant, adjusted only by factors such as proximity to the derailment and reported health symptoms. Nothing in the agreement, Kroll argues, mandated dividing the total fund proportionally.

“[Class Counsel] might wish now that they had put that system into place, but they did not, and they cannot blame KSA,” the filing states.

A pro rata system spreads a finite fund proportionally among all eligible claimants. Had personal injury claims been handled this way, the high claim volume would have dramatically reduced payouts to remain within the $129 million cap. Under the fixed-base model required by the settlement, Kroll said, pro rata distribution “was an impossibility.”

Kroll noted the settlement included two key financial safeguards:

— Pour-over provisions, which allow undistributed money from one claim category to be shifted to another; and

— A $10 million class-wide holdback, intended to reinforce any program that needs additional funding.

These mechanisms, Kroll said, were designed to ensure flexibility and full distribution of the settlement fund.

Personal injury damages were available to those living or working within 10 miles of the derailment site, with a base payment of $25,000 for those within two miles before adjustments for age, symptoms, treatment, or diagnosis.

Based on the funding cap, if just 5,100 of the 30,000 personal injury claimants received the full $25,000, the entire $129 million allocation would be exhausted.

Nearly all of East Palestine’s roughly 4,700 residents live within two miles of the derailment site, in addition to more than 1,500 employees working in the village. If the $129 million were split evenly with no multipliers or reductions, each of the 30,000 claimants would receive about $4,000 in exchange for releasing Norfolk Southern from all current and future liability.

Kroll was removed as settlement administrator in June after class counsel accused the company of overpaying class members. In its filing, Kroll admitted the overpayment — approximately $4.8 million — was caused by calculation errors. It said it offered to reimburse the settlement fund but argued the errors were inadvertent and provided no personal benefit.

Kroll rejected class counsel’s demand for disgorgement (or payback) of all fees it earned — roughly $8.95 million, with another $750,000 invoiced — calling the request punitive and insisting the company delivered valuable services before its removal.

Kroll attached 57 exhibits to its opposition. These include internal correspondence, payment spreadsheets, a copy of the $45 million Columbia Gas settlement that served as a model for the distribution plan, and corrected versions of the plan itself. The documents reveal early disputes between Kroll and class counsel and shed light on why personal injury payments — promised within 30 days of the Sept. 25, 2025 final settlement approval — stalled.

Among the exhibits:

— An email from co-lead counsel M. Elizabeth Graham to Kroll executives complaining about missed deadlines for sending payments. From Grand Cayman on Dec. 19, 2024, Graham wrote she was receiving repeated calls and seeing “numerous Facebook posts,” urging Kroll to either send payments as promised or publicly explain delays.

— A response from Kroll’s Mark Rapazzini stating that Norfolk Southern required review and approval of personal injury releases before payments could be issued. “NS counsel has 5,000 personal injury releases that they have been reviewing,” he wrote, adding that more appeal letters would go out once approvals were received.

— A March 21 message from Kroll’s Scott Fenwick indicating that appeals of rejected personal injury claims were unlikely to succeed because claimants failed to follow required procedures.

— An April 16, 2024 “Allocation Point System” projecting average payouts: $2,490.79 for direct (property) payments, $5,000 for business losses, and personal injury payments ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on claimant group.

— A Nov. 11, 2024 email from Kroll’s Derek Cataldi to class counsel revealing that no claimant in the first distribution round received anywhere near $25,000. Among 151 payments, the average was $4,504.75.

— Records showing 179 personal injury claims from East Palestine residents had been denied by May 1, 2025 and over 10,000 claims had been rejected overall.

— An Oct. 21, 2024 calculation showing an adult within five miles of the derailment would receive just $1,875.

— A May 22, 2025 notice that 24 checks totaling $107,353.13 were past their void dates and considered unclaimed.