The lawsuit represents 23 plaintiffs, who were killed on September 12th, 2008, in a major train accident that involved a Metrolink train colliding with a Union Pacific freight train when both ended up on the same track. The engineer of the Metrolink train was texting during the trip, and missed a red light indicating that he was supposed to switch tracks.

This led to Congress passing the Rail Safety Improvement Act, mandating that all trains should stop at red lights, whether the conductor notices it or not. Also, federal regulators banned the use of cell phones by train operators while on duty.

This lawsuit brings up some interesting paradigms. One, can negligence be proven? Just because the engineer was texting, did he miss the red light, or was something else at fault? Two, the company knew about the texting, but didn't have the authority to stop him from doing it, per the union contract. However, wrongful death is easy enough to prove, and the jury will possibly overlook some of the reasons Metrolink allowed this engineer to continue using his cell phone and find them negligent at the same time.

Up to now, the largest verdict in history is against R. J. Reynolds, with a verdict of $79 million dollars. The judgments continue growing against the Exxon Corporation as it pertains to the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in 1989, but that lawsuit had nothing to do with wrongful death of humans.

Recently, Metrolink stated that they would not be contributing any money to a memorial that's being built in Simi Valley for the victims, saying they'd rather their be a larger memorial, more regional, honoring all victims. It should be interesting to see if the spin, no matter which way it goes, has any effect on the lawsuit.