A federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with railroad giant BNSF Railway in a case filed by the estates of two Libby asbestos victims who died from cancer after living near the company’s contaminated rail yard decades ago. In the unanimous finding, an Oregon-based panel of three judges from t he 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 2024 Montana federal court ruling that asbestos contamination at BNSF’s rail yard had contributed to the 2020 deaths of Joyce Walder and Thomas Wells. BNSF shipped asbestos-tainted vermiculite products nationwide from the 20-acre site in downtown Libby throughout much of the 20th century.  The decision, authored by Judge Morgan B. Christen, cited federal “common carrier” laws that broadly shield railroad companies from liability related to the products they are contracted to transport. “We conclude that BNSF is protected from strict liability by the common carrier exception. Plaintiffs’ claims arose from activities BNSF engaged in while pursuing its statutorily imposed duty as a common carrier,” the opinion read. “We therefore reverse the district court’s judgment and remand with instructions to enter judgment for BNSF.” The appellate court decision dealt a victory to BNSF Railway, a Texas-based subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway empire since 2010, and delivered a blow to plaintiffs who sought to establish for the first time in federal court that the railroad company is liable for its part in the broad public health disaster in Libby. Public health experts have estimated that hundreds of people died and thousands were sickened from asbestos-related illnesses related to widespread vermiculite mining operations. In the lead-up to the court’s decision, legal experts said the fate of the Libby case at the 9th Circuit could bolster or undermine hundreds of other asbestos cases against BNSF pending in Montana courts.  Speaking to Montana Free Press about the case in October, state District Court Judge Amy Eddy, who oversees the state’s Asbestos Claims Court, said that a victory for BNSF at the 9th Circuit could lead the railway to “move to dismiss all pending cases in the Asbestos Claims Court related to its activities in Libby during this period of time.” A BNSF spokesperson declined to comment to MTFP about the ruling. In a written statement to MTFP, an attorney for the estates of Wells and Walder criticized the court’s ruling and said they were considering next steps. “We respect the Court but disagree with its decision and believe it misapplied Montana law,” said Jinnifer Mariman, an attorney with the Kalispell-based McGarvey Law Firm. “We are talking with our clients and evaluating our options for an appeal.” BNSF spent much of the 20th century shipping asbestos-tainted vermiculite products from Libby to locations nationwide — materials that had been extracted from a vermiculite mine owned by W.R. Grace. The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued in court in 2024 that the byproducts of those materials, also contaminated with asbestos, built up in the soil around the company’s rail yard.    In legal filings, BNSF attorneys strongly denied that the railway knew of the toxic effects of asbestos until after journalists and federal health regulators unveiled Libby’s widespread contamination in the 1990s. The Environmental Protection Agency designated much of the town and the surrounding area a Superfund site in 2002.  W.R. Grace filed for bankruptcy in 2001, establishing a trust for injured residents sickened by asbestos. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2014.  Lights inside businesses and homes around Libby illuminate the darkening sky Oct. 14, 2025. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America BNSF Railway’s liability has been argued extensively in Montana courts, where the company has faced waves of lawsuits from former Libby residents. But the question of the extent of the federal common carrier protections had been largely untested until the Wells and Walder case was filed in 2021.  During the case’s 2024 trial, the jury rejected the claim that the railway company had acted negligently in the management of its rail yard, but agreed that BNSF was “strictly liable” for the harm caused by that contamination. The jury awarded each of the plaintiff’s estates $4 million in damages.  In its appeal, BNSF argued that the lower federal court had incorrectly interpreted the “common carrier” protections afforded to railroads. The condition of its rail yard, attorneys said, was inherently connected to its transportation duties protected under federal law. In its Tuesday ruling, the panel of judges from the 9th Circuit endorsed that part of BNSF’s argument. “Federal law defines ‘transportation’ broadly to include ‘delivery,’ ‘storage,’ ‘handling,’ and ‘services related to [the] movement’ of property. Plaintiffs’ theory of liability thus stems directly from BNSF’s statutory duty to transport vermiculite concentrate,” the ruling said.  The lower federal court opinion from U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris in Montana concluded in 2024 that BNSF’s failure to maintain its rail yard was an action taken in its own corporate interest, rather than as a part of its duties to the public as a common carrier. But the panel of 9th Circuit Court judges found that attorneys for the plaintiffs offered no evidence to prove that point — an argument of wrongdoing that would have veered closely to prior claims about the company’s alleged negligence, which a jury rejected. Federal and state caselaw, the appellate court concluded, supported the finding that BNSF is entitled to federal common carrier protections.  “[I]t is uncontested that the asbestos dust that accumulated in BNSF’s rail yard leaked or escaped from rail cars during BNSF’s required transportation of vermiculite concentrate. The fact that the dust accumulated gradually along the railroad tracks and in BNSF’s rail yard, rather than spilling abruptly, does not alter our analysis because the gradual spillage still occurred during BNSF’s shipment of vermiculite,” the ruling said. Attorneys for plaintiffs and BNSF could file new motions in other state and federal asbestos cases in the coming weeks based on the 9th Circuit Court ruling.  The post Federal appeals court sides with BNSF Railway in dispute with Libby asbestos victims appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less