A Locomotive Fan Housing Was Lying Loose on the Shop Floor. He Leaned Against It to Sit Down and It Rolled Onto His Foot.
After trial: Amended on appeal. The jury returned $5,380,665.06 in gross damages, comprising $3.94 million in general damages and $396,104.34 in future medical expenses, and found Kansas City Southern 80 percent at fault with 20 percent to Waller. The trial court entered judgment for the full gross amount; on November 26, 2025 the Louisiana Second Circuit amended the judgment to apply the 20 percent comparative share the jury had assessed, producing $4,304,532.05. FELA is the exclusive remedy for a railroad worker against his employer and it expressly allows comparative reduction, so this is the statute operating as designed rather than a remittitur for excessiveness.
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.
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