How to File a Railroad Lawsuit For Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Railroad employees who suffer from occupational diseases such as cancer have the right to bring a lawsuit under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. However it can be difficult to prove that the condition is a result of work.
For instance, a worker may have signed an agreement to release himself when he settled an asbestos claim and then sued later for cancer that may have resulted from those exposures.
FELA Statute of Limitations
In many workers’ compensation cases, the clock starts in a claim at the moment an injury is documented. However, FELA laws allow railroad employees to file a lawsuit against the development of lung disease and cancer years after the fact. This is why it’s so important to get an FELA injury or illness report as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, the railroad will try to dismiss a case arguing that an employee was not acting within the three-year time frame of limitations. To determine when the FELA “clock” begins, courts often look to two Supreme Court decisions.
The first thing they’ll consider is whether the railroad worker has a reason to believe that the symptoms are related to their job. If the railroad worker goes to a doctor, and the doctor concludes that the injuries are work-related then the claim isn’t time barred.
The other factor is the time between the moment that the railroad worker first began to notice symptoms. If the employee is experiencing breathing difficulties for a while and attributes the problems to their railway work, then it is likely that the railroad employee is within the statute of limitations. Please contact us for a no-cost consultation should you have any questions regarding your FELA claims.
Employers’ Negligence
FELA lays out an legal foundation for railroad workers to hold negligent employers accountable. Contrary to most other workers who are bound by worker’s compensation systems with fixed benefits, railroad employees can sue employers for the full amount of their injuries.
Our lawyers recently obtained the verdict in a FELA lawsuit filed by three retired Long Island Railroad machinists who developed COPD chronic bronchitis, COPD and Emphysema because of their exposure to asbestos when working on locomotives. The jury awarded them $16,400,000 in damages.
The union pacific railroad lawsuits claimed that the cancer of the plaintiffs was not related to their work on the railroad and that the lawsuit was barred because it had been over three years since the plaintiffs discovered their health issues were related to their work on the railroad. Our Doran & Murphy attorneys were successful in proving that the wasatch railroad contractors lawsuit had never given its employees any information about the dangers of asbestos and diesel exhaust while they were working and did not have safety procedures to protect their workers from dangerous chemicals.
It is better to hire an experienced lawyer when you can, even though a worker could have up to three years to submit an FELA lawsuit from the date they were diagnosed. The sooner your lawyer starts collecting witness statements, evidence and other evidence the greater chance there is of winning the case.
Causation
In a personal-injury class action lawsuit against railroads, plaintiffs must prove that the actions of a defendant led to their injuries. This requirement is called legal causation. It is essential that an attorney carefully examines the claim prior to filing it in the court.
Railroad workers are exposed to a variety of chemicals, including carcinogens and other pollutants, from diesel exhaust alone. The microscopic particles penetrate deeply into the lung tissue, causing inflammation and damage. As time passes, Wasatch railroad contractors Lawsuit these damage could lead to debilitating ailments such as chronic bronchitis, or COPD.
One of our FELA cases involves a former conductor who suffered from debilitating asthma as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after years of working in the cabs of trains without any protection. Also, he developed back issues due to the years of lifting and pushing. His doctor advised him that these back issues were the result of years of exposure to diesel fumes which he believes aggravated the other health issues he was suffering from.
Our attorneys were able to preserve favorable court rulings on trial and a modest federal jury award for our client in this case. The plaintiff alleged that the derailment of his train and subsequent release of vinyl chloride from the rail yard affected his physical health as well as his emotional state, as he feared about developing cancer. However, the USSC held that the defendant railroad was not responsible for his anxiety about developing cancer because he had previously waived the right to bring the claim in a previous lawsuit.
Damages
If you’ve been injured while working for a railroad company, you may qualify to file a lawsuit under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. You could be awarded damages for your injuries via this route, including reimbursement for medical expenses and pain and suffering. The process is a bit complicated and you should speak with a train accident lawyer to fully understand your options.
The first step in a railroad lawsuit is to prove that the defendant had a duty to the plaintiff of care. The plaintiff must prove that the defendant breached this duty of care by failing to protect them from injury. Finally, the plaintiff has to prove that the violation was the direct cause of their injury.
For example an employee of a railroad who develops cancer due to their working for the railroad has to prove that their employer did not adequately warn them about the dangers associated with their job. They also must demonstrate that their cancer was directly caused by this negligence.
In one instance we defended a railroad workers cancer lawsuit firm against a suit brought by a former employee who claimed that his cancer was the result of exposure to diesel and asbestos. We claimed that the plaintiff’s claim was time-barred because he executed an earlier release in a separate lawsuit against the same defendant.