In late April 2008, an Ohio state court jury ordered Conrail to pay $2.6 million to its former locomotive engineer, for negligently causing his diesel exhaust asthma lung disease. Frank Battaglia, worked in the Detroit, Michigan rail yards for Conrail for 23 years as a railroad engineer, before he was eventually diagnosed with diesel exhaust fume asthma. Ohio based attorneys represented Battaglia, and Conrail retained Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania lawyers who specialize in defending railroads, including defending claims involving diesel fume type cases.
Apparently, the jury bought the worker’s side of the serious lung damage story and rejected the Conrail side.
Battaglia’s lawyers presented evidence that his lung disease was the result of inhaling fumes hundreds, if not thousands of occasions while he worked as a railroad engineer usually involving his location inside locomotive engine cabs. His attorneys argued that federal railroad administration (FRA) regulations prohibit diesel exhaust fumes from entering into the locomotive engine cab, and that this regulatory violation directly led to lung disease in Mr. Battaglia.
Conrail is a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern, and one of Norfolk Southern’s medical doctors also gave testimony to defend Conrail, along with other doctors that were specially retained on behalf of Conrail. Conrail denied the worker suffered any disease from diesel fumes.
The jury received testimony for an entire week, and then deliberated five hours before returning the $2.6 million verdict in favor of Battaglia. This is the second major verdict attorney Leizerman has obtained in a diesel exhaust fume trial, with an earlier verdict for another railroad locomotive engineer several years earlier, who sued Norfolk Southern. That earlier verdict was upheld on appeal in the state of Ohio appeals court system.
Rail workers most exposed to diesel fumes are railroad locomotive engineers, railroad conductors, railroad carmen, and railroad shop workers who have worked around diesel engines for decades. Medical experts have documented an increased incidence of lung cancer in railroad workers with these long-term exposures to diesel fumes as well. Our law firm has received an increasing number of inquiries from railroad workers who believe they may suffer diesel asthma lung disease. An experienced occupational medical physician can determine if your particular form of lung disease symptoms are consistent with this often undiagnosed form of “diesel asthma,” and the doctor must also evaluate any other occupational exposures to dusts, fumes and similar irritants.
The Environmental Protection Agency, in 2008, finally put into effect new regulations governing diesel engine emissions in railroad locomotives as well as trucks and other types of motors using diesel fuel. Soon, there will be monitoring requirements for what types of emissions are coming from the engines, but this will have no affect on workers who may have been exposed in the past. There have been a number of medical journal articles discussing the pervasive adverse health affects of diesel fumes, and the awareness of the dangers of long term exposures have now been well documented. The public is just now starting to understand the issue.
My viewpoint: The serious long term effects of diesel exhaust fumes are well documented. The medical community and the public are paying more attention.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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