Injured Missouri Railroad Employee May be Eligible for FELA Claim
A railroad worker employed by Norfolk Southern Railroad was recently injured while working in Ohio. The worker, who fell from a bridge into the Vermilion River, was working to fix and replace railroad ties on a set of train tracks. While the man was working on repairing the railroad tie, both he and the tie fell into the water. The man was taken to the hospital for injuries sustained in the work-related accident. It has not yet been determined what caused the fall; depending on the cause, the injuries sustained may be grounds for a FELA claim.
When a railroad employee is injured, the act that regulates legal action is the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). In order to establish a FELA claim, four elements must be proven.
The elements are:
- The injury occurred while the plaintiff was working within the scope of his or her employment with the railroad
- The employment was in furtherance of the railroad's interstate transportation business
- The employer railroad was negligent The employer's negligence played some part in causing the injury for which compensation is sought under the Act
Additionally, in order to assert a FELA claim, the “standard of proof” needed to create a question for the jury is that the plaintiff, railroad employee, must show more than a “scintilla of evidence.” This basically means that in order to assert a claim under FELA, the employee must be able to present a question to the jury with at least enough evidence to prove that the question exists and is based on a real issue/ event with some corroborating information.
From there, the employee has to prove causation- that “employer negligence played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury for which damages are sought.”
Although the formalities needed to prove a FELA claim seem relatively simple, complexities can arise in FELA claims. Issues often arise when workers, not specifically employed by the railroad company but hired by the railroad company through a third party, such as individuals loading and unloading cargo, are injured.
This is because in order to allege a claim under FELA, there must exist an employer-employee relationship. So when third-party employees are injured performing railway work, it will be more difficult to assert a claim under FELA because the typical employer-employee relationship may not exist there.
Additionally, complications often come up when a railroad employee is injured while not “actually” at work for his/her job. For instance, there is coverage for employees injured “at lunch” on the premises, but there is usually not coverage when an employee is walking to work and chooses a dangerous route on the premises when a safe one is provided.
These two examples show that although the basic guidelines for making a claim pursuant to FELA are relatively straightforward, circumstances surrounding injurious railroad incidents at work can create complexities in alleging a FELA claim. For this reason, the importance of an experienced Missouri FELA attorney to your case cannot be stressed enough.
It is important that the legal assistance you choose is familiar with the area of law you are dealing with. Page Law, A Missouri Personal Injury Law Firm, deals with cases involving injured railroad workers regularly.
Page Law offers free consultations to those injured through railroad employment, and you pay nothing unless you recover. You can reach me 24 hours a day at 314.322.8515 or toll free at 1.800.500.INJURY (4658). You can also email me at john@pagecagle.com or visit my website at www.RailroadAccidentLawGroup.com for more information.
