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.
Railroad Companies
CSX Transportation Inc. – the largest railroad in the eastern United States
CSX has been the focus of nearly all the solvent railroad lawsuits, though Norfolk Southern and Burlington Northern, which later merged with Santa Fe, have also been targets. The flurry of lawsuits filed under FELA law in 1987 after a pivotal settlement was decided was classified by the industry as being bogus. The FELA attorneys working on the case uncovered the wide use of chemical solvents with the absence of implementing even the most basic workplace safety precautions.
CSX still continues to deny a link between solvent exposure and brain damage, despite the dozens of published studies finding a connection. The company has claimed the high number of FELA lawsuits sought is because some law firms aggressively recruited clients and helped plant the idea that workers were sick. The inability for the industry to abolish or reform FELA law has allowed a way for some of those injured workers to seek damages. Still, under FELA law, workers must prove employer negligence, which can be extremely difficult especially against such large companies.
There have been hundreds of solvent exposure lawsuits, with former and current railroad workers claiming illnesses such as brain damage because of unsafe working conditions. CSX has acknowledged 466 solvent settlements totaling over $35 million, with many more solvent lawsuits pending and expected to be filed. Even though the majority of major railroads have phased the use of the most toxic solvents out, workers have been exposed to high amounts of solvents for long periods of time from the 1960s through the early 1990s. Many medical experts believe instances of brain damage and toxic encephalopathy have been misdiagnosed as other conditions due to the complexity of the illness.
Three other major United States railroads include:
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Union Pacific – the largest railroad in North America, covering 23 states across two-thirds of the United States
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Burlington Northern Santa Fe – operates 30,000 route miles, including the shortest, most direct rail route between Chicago and Los Angeles
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Norfolk Southern – operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, D.C. and the province of Ontario
For more information on FELA laws, as well as toxic encephalopathy, please contact us to confer with a FELA attorney.