Richmond has reached a $2 million settlement with the company that stored plastics across three North West F Street properties.
The settlement agreement on crossclaims by the city against Cornerstone Trading Group and its owner Seth Smith was filed Sept. 9 in the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana as part of a class-action lawsuit that resulted from the April 11, 2023, fire that consumed the three properties. Judge Tanya Walton Pratt approved the agreement Sept. 10. The court had previously ruled in the city’s favor on two of five claims against Cornerstone and Smith, and the other three are now dismissed.
The settlement awards the city $2,055,000. That is broken down to $2,035,000 against Cornerstone and $20,000 against Smith.
The city’s now-dismissed claims were included as part of the lawsuit’s trial scheduled to begin Sept. 14 in the Birch Bayh Federal Building in Indianapolis. Tushawn Craig and Marquetta Stokes, then Richmond residents, filed the lawsuit claiming negligence by the city, Cornerstone and Smith led to the fire that burned multiple days and produced toxic smoke. Pratt certified the lawsuit as a class action during September 2025, and 3,594 people have been notified of potential class-action eligibility, according to court documents.
The fire resulted in an evacuation order for the area within a half-mile of the North West F fire site that lasted until April 16. Craig and Stokes seek compensation for costs incurred and loss of income during the evacuation, damages for physical and mental health problems from smoke and debris, and for invasion of properties by the smoke and debris.
Cornerstone owned 308 N.W. F St.; however, it stored plastics waiting to be recycled across that property as well as 310 N.W. F St. and 358 N.W. F St. Through unsafe building procedures, the city ordered that Cornerstone clean up the properties, but with little effect. The city eventually used tax sale procedures to obtain ownership of the 310 and 358 properties in an effort to spur Cornerstone’s cleanup.
Plastics still covered all three properties in April 2023 when the fire ignited and consumed plastics, buildings and truck trailers. The smoke drifted east into Ohio.
Richmond originally filed its claims against Cornerstone and Smith on Oct. 10, 2023, seeking compensation for any claims that would be awarded during the lawsuit and for costs related to the fire response and cleanup. The city accused Cornerstone and Smith of trespass for unauthorized invasion of the city’s properties, nuisance for maintaining materials on city properties, negligence for breaching duties of reasonable care, violation of the anti-dumping statute for illegally dumping plastics on city properties and violating the Environmental Legal Action with the release of hazardous substances into the ground and groundwater.
In March, the city was awarded summary judgment on its trespass and Environmental Legal Action claims, leading to the settlement.
A version of this article will appear in the September 16 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
