CCL President Robert S> Peck filed a motion to dismiss a petition to require mandatory arbitration of survivors of a train derailment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

The case arose after the Amtrak Southwest Chief hit a dump truck on the tracks in near Mendon, Missouri. The injured passengers and the estates of those killed sued BNSF Railway, which owned and controlled the tracks, in state court. BNSF then filed a federal court action against the plaintiffs, asking that court to enjoin further litigation in the state court and to order mandatory arbitration.

BNSF alleges it is a third-party beneficiary of an arbitration provision that Amtrak requires ticket purchasers to approve before paying for tickets online. CCL's motion argues that Amtrak, as a government agency, lacks authority to insist on arbitration and cannot require passengers to waive constitutional rights in order to travel. Even if Amtrak had that authority, the CCL memorandum argues, Amtrak failed to crate a proper waiver of the constitutional rights of access to the courts, trial by jury, and travel because it did not provide an informed and voluntary waiver of those rights.

In addition, CCL filed an opposition to BNSF's motion to consolidate this case with another one arising out of the same crash. The current case is BNSF v. Beaulieu. The similar action, further along in litigation, is BNSF v. Magin, where CCL also filed an opposition to consolidation on behalf of clients in that case. CCL's earlier motion to certify the constitutional question to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals is pending in the Magin case.