The personal injury attorneys at Peter Higgins Law represented a 38 year-old Philippino man who worked for his entire adult life for Amtrak. He started as a waiter in a dining car, working his way up to becoming the chief of the train, in charge of supervising the entire train crew.
On the day of his railroad accident, our client walked down a dark, circular stairwell from the upper level of the dining car to the kitchen area on the lower deck. As he took a few steps, his feet slipped out from under him and he stepped on a brown paper bag used for garbage, causing him to fall on his back, bouncing down steps to the lower level.
Amtrak’s rules require that employees injured on the job to immediately fill out an accident report. When our client did so, he purposely left out having stepped on the brown paper bag, because the bag had been left there by a co-worker he did not wish to implicate in his accident.
Our client suffered a ruptured disk in his lower back that required surgery. The surgery was to remove the disk, so it would not be pressing on his spinal nerve. The disc contact with the spinal nerve resulted in severe pain in our client’s back running down one of his legs to his foot. Unfortunately, the surgery caused scar tissue in the area where the ruptured disk had been removed, and the scar tissue started pressing against the nerve endings and caused permanent pain and sciatica in our client’s back and legs.
Amtrak refused to offer a reasonable settlement, claiming they were not at fault for his fall down the stairwell since there was no mention of a bag causing him to trip in the accident report. Our railroad accident attorneys filed suit. Depositions of the train crew revealed that it was a common practice to throw large brown paper garbage bags from the upper level of the dining car halfway down the stairs, so that any crew members working on the lower level could grab the garbage bags and throw them away when the train made a stop.
Successful Resolution: $1,200,000
When the railroad injury case went to trial, we brought in several co-workers to testify about this practice. Our client explained why he did not mention anything about a bag in the accident report. Doctors testified about the severity of our client’s injury. The jury awarded a total of $2.4 million in damages, but reduced that amount by 50%, finding that our client was 50% at fault for causing his accident by not looking where he was stepping. This left a net award to our client of $1,200,000.
Has you or someone you love been injured resulting in lost time from work, medical treatment, pain or disability? The personal injury lawyers at Peter Higgins Law are here to help. Though all cases are different and no result can be guaranteed, our injury lawyers have helped many individuals throughout Illinois obtain compensation.