Chicago Railroad Conductor Wins $21.4 Million After Foot Crushed Between Railcars

Michael Parsons had worked as a conductor for Norfolk Southern Railway Company since September 2010. On September 2, 2011, he was riding the side of a railcar through the company's 51st/55th Street railyard in Chicago when his left foot was caught between the car he was standing on and a car he had shortly before left standing on the adjacent track. The two tracks, numbered 24 and 25, had been at least 12 feet apart until Norfolk Southern replaced switches and turnouts there in 2010. After that work the tracks pinched to as little as 10 feet 6 inches. Parsons had read the railroad's January 2011 bulletin about the rebuilt switches, but he testified that nothing in it told him the gap between tracks 24 and 25 had been cut that far.

His reconstructive surgeon testified that the heel bone was broken completely off and that the bottom of the foot was basically peeled off. Surgeons transplanted flesh from Parsons' thigh to rebuild the heel. He went through at least 12 surgeries. Through 2013 and 2014 the wound kept reopening, keeping him off the foot for stretches at a time and requiring antibiotics to hold off infection. A second physician testified that a chronic infection drove those cycles and that Parsons, 34 years old at trial, would have trouble walking for the rest of his life and might need surgery every four or five years. Both doctors said he remained at heightened risk of amputation, and Norfolk Southern called no medical witness to contradict them. Limited to sedentary work, Parsons could not go back to conducting, and in late 2014 he returned to the railroad as a dispatcher.

Parsons sued under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, the federal law that lets injured railroad workers seek damages from their employer for negligence. His engineering expert testified that the 2010 job counted as reconstruction, which triggered an Illinois Commerce Commission rule requiring at least 13 feet 6 inches between adjacent tracks, and that the rebuilt stretch left only 10 feet 6 inches, creating a dangerous pinch point. Norfolk Southern argued the area between the switch and the clearance point fell outside the regulated zone, and that Parsons was to blame for leaving cars south of the clearance point and for riding the side of a car where company rules forbade it.

The jury sided with Parsons. On November 19, 2015, it returned a verdict of $22,474,102, which included $19 million for pain, suffering and disability, $1.5 million for lost earnings, $1.5 million for disfigurement, and $474,102 for future medical costs. It found Parsons zero percent negligent, and in a special interrogatory it found the track-center regulation applied, that the 2010 work was reconstruction, that Norfolk Southern violated the 13 foot 6 inch minimum, and that the violation contributed to his injuries.

Norfolk Southern asked the trial court for judgment in its favor, a new trial, or a cut to the verdict. On April 21, 2016 the court denied all of that except a $1 million remittitur, which reduced the $1.5 million lost-earnings award to $500,000. Parsons accepted the remittitur in open court on May 4, 2016, and the court entered a reduced judgment of $21,474,102 that day.

Norfolk Southern appealed, arguing the jury instructions and the special interrogatory were flawed and that the $19 million for pain, suffering and disability was excessive. The Illinois Appellate Court, First District, rejected every argument and affirmed on August 25, 2017, writing that the jury had heard largely unrebutted evidence about the severity of the injury, the recurring complications, the ongoing pain and the permanent disability. The court denied rehearing on September 27, 2017. Norfolk Southern then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, which denied review on October 1, 2018, leaving the $21,474,102 judgment final. John M. Power and George T. Brugess of Cogan & Power, P.C. represented Parsons at trial and through the appeal, and appear as his counsel on the brief filed in the Supreme Court.