$5.38 Million Verdict for Railroad Electrician Crushed by Loose Fan Housing
After trial: Reduced on appeal. The jury returned $5,380,665.06 in gross damages and found the railroad 80 percent at fault.
Won by Mayer, Smith & Roberts, L.L.P..
Michael Waller, a 17-year electrician at Kansas City Southern's Shreveport Diesel Repair Shop, leaned against a locomotive fan housing left lying loose on the shop floor. It shifted onto its side and pinned his left foot, crushing it at the ankle and heel.
What happened
On September 11, 2017 Michael Waller was at the end of his shift. He had been a Kansas City Southern electrician for seventeen years, working at the railroad's Shreveport Diesel Repair Shop.
He changed at his tool locker rather than in the locker room, and with his left foot not properly seated in his shoe he walked about seven and a half feet to a locomotive fan housing that was lying loose on the shop floor, and leaned against it to sit down.
The housing was unsecured. It shifted onto its side and pinned his left foot, crushing it at the ankle and heel. His heel was lacerated, and he developed a permanent, disabling condition.
The claim ran under the Federal Employers Liability Act, which is a railroad worker's exclusive remedy against his employer and which allows the jury to reduce the award by the worker's own share of responsibility. The jury found Kansas City Southern 80 percent at fault and Waller 20 percent, and awarded $3.94 million in general damages plus $396,104.34 in future medical expenses.
The trial court entered judgment for the full amount. On November 26, 2025 the Louisiana Second Circuit amended it to apply the 20 percent the jury had already assessed, bringing the judgment to $4,304,532.05.
Waller was represented by Ben Marshall, Jr. of Mayer, Smith and Roberts in Shreveport, with John D. Roven and Kevin M. Camp of Roven Camp in Houston as co-counsel, together with Scott Crichton Law and the Law Offices of Mary Watson Smith.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
Related workplace injury verdicts
After nearly 30 years of litigation, Markovits Stock and DeMarco secured a $742 million-plus-interest settlement for approximately 23,000 Navistar retirees whose healthcare and life insurance benefits had been repeatedly reduced.
Paul Napoli served as court-appointed co-liaison counsel for nearly 10,000 firefighters, police officers, and construction workers who developed respiratory diseases after working at Ground Zero, securing a settlement worth up to $712.5 million against the city and its contractors.
Jose Valdivia, 25, was building scaffolding at the Phillips 66 refinery in Lake Charles when a co-worker above him lost his grip on a steel scaffold bar. It struck him on the head and spine through a hard hat and full protective equipment. He is in a wheelchair with limited speech. Brock never reported the accident to OSHA.
On September 7, 2019, Ulysses Cruz, a 48-year-old United Airlines ramp worker serving as a wing walker at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, was struck from behind by an Allied Aviation Fueling Company of Houston van whose driver said the morning sun was in his eyes. Cruz was paralyzed from the chest down and suffered a stroke two days later that cost him the use of his dominant right arm. After a two-week trial before Judge Ravi Sandill, a Harris County jury on October 25, 2021 found Allied 70 percent and driver Reginald Willis 30 percent at fault and awarded Cruz, his wife and their two children $352.7 million in compensatory damages. Judge Sandill conditioned denial of a new trial on a $117.5 million remittitur of noneconomic damages, which the family accepted, and an amended judgment of about $235.3 million was signed February 7, 2022. Allied appealed, the parties reached a confidential mediated settlement, and on July 18, 2023 the First Court of Appeals vacated the judgment and dismissed the case at the parties' joint request.