FELA, or the Federal Employment Liability Act assures railroad employees a safe work place and gives them and their families the right to recover compensation if injured in a railroad related accident. Under FELA, injured employees can seek compensation for wage loss, future wage loss, medical expenses and treatments, pain and suffering, and for partial or permanent disability. All railroad solvent exposure lawsuits have been filed under FELA.
Jury orders Norfolk Southern Railway Co. to pay $1.5 million in damages
- August 14, 2004
A jury has ordered Norfolk Southern Railway Co. to pay $1.5 million in damages to a man who says he contracted silicosis while working for the railroad . However, the Circuit Court Judge did not enter the verdict, and in October, he plans on hearing Norfolk Southern's motions to set the decision aside or reduce the award. Silicosis is a disabling lung disease caused by breathing in too much silica dust. The silica dust can become embedded in the lungs and cause lung scarring that makes it difficult to breath.
Even after exposure to silica dust has stopped, silicosis can progress. The occupational lung disease is incurable and irreversible and has been associated with bronchitis, tuberculosis and in some studies to lung cancer. More than 250 Americans die from silicosis every year. The former Norfolk Southern employee sued the railway in September 2003 seeking damages for his "pain and suffering" for the "early silicosis" he allegedly developed during his 16 years as a maintenance-of-way worker. His lawyer claims the silica dust exposure came when the granite ballast used as a bed for the rail lines was dumped. The lawsuit accuses Norfolk Southern of failing to adhere to standards set by OSHA until the late 1990s despite conducting field tests in the early 1990s which found silica dust concentrations to be in excess.
Railroad workers injured on the job wishing to seek damages must prove the injury was caused by the negligence of the railroad or its agents under FELA, unlike other industries who are covered by no-fault workers' compensation laws. Norfolk Southern has been the target of silicosis, asbestosis and other mixed-dust cases throughout the years.For more information on FELA, please contact us to confer with a personal injury lawyer.