FELA Claim & Amtrak Injury
The FELA attorneys at Lipkin & Higgins represented B.Y., a 43-year-old sleeper-car attendant who was working on an Amtrak train from Chicago to Ft. Worth, TX. In Ft. Worth, a very large man boarded the train with two oversized suitcases. B.
The FELA attorneys at Lipkin & Higgins were contacted by T.L. a “70 something” year old man traveling with his wife and group of senior citizens on an Amtrak train trip from Michigan to the Ozarks in Missouri. As the train was coming into a station in Central Illinois, our T.L. was walking inside the upper deck of the observation car when the train jerked suddenly, throwing him to the floor. As a result, T.L. suffered a hip fracture.
The FELA attorneys at Lipkin & Higgins represented S. T., a 52-year-old woman who worked as a waitress on an Amtrak train traveling from Miami to New York. Due to heavy rains in the Carolinas, the diner car of the train began to leak through the ceiling causing the tile floor to become wet and slippery. S.T.
The FELA attorneys at Lipkin & Higgins represented, M.R., a 47 year old woman who worked as an Amtrak Sleeper Car Attendant for over 20 years. One evening M.R.
The FELA attorneys at Lipkin & Higgins were presented with the following repetitive trauma case, also known as a “wear-out” case. Repetitive trauma means that an injury does not occur at one moment in time, eg. where a pedestrian is hit by a car, but occurs gradually over time, the result of performing certain physical activities day after day for years.
Lipkin & Higgins represented a mechanic who fell off a ladder and broke his wrist while working for a company that performed intermodal loading and unloading operations for a railroad in the Chicago area. Although our client was not technically employed by the railroad, we filed suit against the railroad on his behalf, alleging that he should be considered an “employee” for purposes of the FELA because the railroad exercised sufficient control over his and his company’s work.
Our client was a chef on an Amtrak train from Los Angeles to Chicago. When the train gets to Chicago, Amtrak puts the crew up in a hotel for the night before heading back to Los Angeles the next morning. While in the hotel, our client slipped and fell while stepping out of the shower and fractured his ankle.
Situation:
Was this freight train rail yard worker entitled to workers compensation under FELA?
In this case, we represented a 55 year-old man who had worked in freight train railroad yards for over 35 years. Most recently he was a car repairman, which required him to inspect and repair freight train railcars. Our client was good at his job, took pride in his work, and performed his work safely and at high quality.
