In Re Silver Bridge Disaster Litigation

FRANK A. KAUFMAN, District Judge.

Late in the afternoon of December 15, 1967 the Silver Bridge, spanning the Ohio River from Point Pleasant, West Virginia to Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed. Thirty-one automobiles fell into the river; forty-six persons died and others were injured. As a result, fifty-six suits were filed in the United States District Courts for the Districts of West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland. In those fifty-six cases, one or more of the following parties were named as defendants: United States Steel Corporation, J. E. Greiner Co., and certain of its predecessors and successors…