Wrongful Death Claim For Railroad Inspector’s Suicide Held Not Compensable Under FELA, But FRSA Retaliation Claim Allowed To Proceed
Posted on Aug 19, 2014
In 2011, a railroad inspector was accused of trying to sabotage a train’s braking system. With a formal hearing scheduled a week later, the inspector reported to work, then returned to his car and shot and killed himself in the railroad employer’s parking lot. After pursuing administrative remedies, the inspector’s widow and estate brought suit alleging violations of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) and the anti-retaliation section of the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA). The plaintiffs claimed the railroad had fabricated the sabotage allegations against her husband in...
Continue Reading
Case Against Combine Manufacturer Withstands Summary Judgment; Plaintiff’s Inability to Recall Events Not Enough To Exclude Evidence
Posted on Aug 18, 2014
Plaintiff was seriously injured when he came into contact with a sheave near a combine’s gear shift lever while helping his grandfather operate a combine used to harvest soybeans. While the plaintiff could not recall the events of the day he was injured, and while his grandfather did not see the injury occur, the grandfather was allowed to testify that the plaintiff was moving in the direction of the combine’s gear shift lever when he contacted the sheave. The plaintiff was also able to testify that he had no operational reason to reach his hand into the area of the accident. Moreover,...
Continue Reading
Indiana Court Finds Attorneys’ Fees Recoverable Under General Wrongful Death Statute
Posted on Aug 17, 2014
The Indiana Court of Appeals held last week that attorneys’ fees are recoverable under Indiana’s General Wrongful Death Statute. The court also found that any award of such fees is compensatory, must be limited to the amount actually lost, and should be reduced by any fault allocation. The case involved an explosion caused by a propane gas leak. The defendants appealed a lower court’s award of attorneys’ fees to plaintiff’s estate in a wrongful death suit, arguing that Indiana’s general wrongful death statute did not allow for recovery of attorneys’ fees where the decedent was survived by...
Continue Reading
Retailer Agrees To Plead No Contest To Criminal Charge For Workplace Safety Violations; Fined $950,000
Posted on Aug 14, 2014
A California criminal case against a retailer for willful violation of occupational safety and health standards was settled last week when the company agreed to pay a $950,000 fine and undergo an independent safety audit of its stores and distribution facilities. As part of the Plea and Settlement Agreement entered with the District Attorney of Los Angeles County’s Office, the company also agreed to plead no contest to a charge of corporate criminal liability for workplace safety violations. The underlying case arose as a result of the 2009 death of a company employee who was crushed when...
Continue Reading
Railroad Worker’s Retaliation Claims For Refusing To Fabricate Safety Violations Proceed To Jury
Posted on Aug 13, 2014
The anti-retaliation provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act are fairly recent additions to the statute and contain, on their face, a lighter causation standard than other employment retaliation statutes. They provide that a “railroad carrier … may not discharge, demote, suspend, reprimand, or in any other way discriminate against an employee if such discrimination is due, in whole or in part, to the employee’s lawful, good faith act done, or perceived by the employer to have been done or about to be done[,] … to refuse to violate or assist in the violation of any Federal law, rule,...
Continue Reading
Eighth Circuit No Stranger To Lead Refinery Dispute
Posted on Aug 12, 2014
For the second time in the last hundred years, the Eighth Circuit last week had to decide a smelter-related dispute between the successor company to an owner of a massive Omaha lead refinery and smelter (the “petitioner”) and a railroad that leased the land (until the 1940s) on which the smelter operated. To quote the court’s opinion, “The history of this case is an archetypal tale of industrial boom and environmental bust.” The lead refinery and smelter started operating in the 1870s, and grew to become the nation’s largest lead refinery. Environmental and safety issues, however, became...
Continue Reading
Expert Opinion Evidence Necessary To Prove General Causation In Benzene-Exposure Case Involving Gas Station Worker
Posted on Aug 11, 2014
In a products liability action against oil and gas companies in which the surviving spouse of a gas station worker claimed that the decedent’s exposure to benzene-containing gasoline caused his acute myeloid leukemia (“AML”), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana denied the plaintiff’s partial summary judgment motions on a number of issues last week. The plaintiff sought summary judgment on general causation that benzene exposure can cause AML, but the court denied this motion because the plaintiff failed to offer expert medical testimony in support of her...
Continue Reading
FEATURED
The Crisis Response & Incident Investigation Team at Eversheds Sutherland has substantial experience in guiding companies through crises, big and small, in providing a coordinated response to help mitigate risk and liability. More>>