$625,000 FELA Verdict Restored by U.S. Supreme Court After Railroad's 'Bug-Bite' Defense
Marshall Nurenberg argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and won reinstatement of a Cuyahoga County jury's $625,000 verdict for a railroad worker who lost both legs after an insect bite on railroad property.
What happened
On August 10, 1954, James Gallick was working as a spotting crew foreman for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near a stretch of track in Cleveland, Ohio. At a low-lying area on railroad property, a pool of stagnant water had collected. Dead rats and pigeons contaminated the pool, which drew insects to the site. Gallick was bitten by an insect while working nearby.
What followed was a medical catastrophe. The bite became infected and the infection spread, eventually becoming so severe that both of Gallick's legs required amputation. He sued the railroad under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), which holds railroads liable for negligence that plays any part in an employee's injury.
The case went to trial in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The jury returned a special verdict, finding that Gallick was bitten by an insect, that the railroad knew the stagnant pool would attract vermin, that the railroad was negligent in allowing that condition to persist, and that the bite caused his injuries. The jury awarded $625,000 in damages.
The railroad appealed, and the Ohio Court of Appeals reversed the verdict, ruling that the evidence of causation was insufficient. Ohio's Supreme Court declined to hear the case, leaving the appellate reversal in place. Marshall Nurenberg, who had tried the case and obtained the original jury verdict, refused to let the result stand. He petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court took the case and, on February 18, 1963, reversed the Ohio appellate court in a decision authored by Justice White. The Court held that the appellate court had improperly substituted its own judgment for that of the jury, invading the fact-finding function that FELA reserves to juries. Under FELA's 'play any part' causation standard, the evidence Nurenberg presented at trial was legally sufficient. The $625,000 jury verdict was reinstated.
The case, widely referred to in legal circles as the 'bug-bite case,' became a significant precedent on the scope of jury fact-finding in FELA litigation. Nurenberg, who was recognized as a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in 1975 and later described by colleagues as one of the greatest trial lawyers in Ohio, went on to lend his name to the firm now known as Nurenberg Paris Heller and McCarthy.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
More proven verdicts from Nurenberg Paris Heller & McCarthy
All Nurenberg Paris Heller & McCarthy proven verdicts →Jamie Lebovitz served on the federal MDL Plaintiff's Steering Committee for the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 disaster, representing 18 families in confidential individual settlements as part of a broader litigation that recovered more than $300 million for surviving relatives of the 88 people killed.
David Paris and Kathleen St. John won Ohio Supreme Court certification of a 1.4-million-member class and secured a $31 million court-approved settlement after proving State Farm concealed a 1994 high-court ruling that would have entitled policyholders to enhanced uninsured-motorist coverage.
A Cuyahoga County jury found MetroHealth Medical Center and its obstetrician departed from the standard of care in a high-risk pregnancy, leaving a child born at 25 weeks with cerebral palsy, developmental delays and visual impairment. The jury awarded $14.5 million. Ohio's cap on non-economic damages against political subdivisions and a collateral-source offset cut it to $3.451 million at the trial court, and in 2017 the Eighth District reinstated the future economic award, for a total of $8.5 million.
Jamie Lebovitz threatened to take Boeing to trial in the Flight 427 wrongful-death MDL and, on the scheduled trial date, accepted a settlement of approximately $7 million for his client's family, a figure reported as far above what most other victims' families received.
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.