Minneapolis, MN
Litigation Lawyer at Minneapolis, MN
Practice Areas: Litigation, Employment & Labor ... +3 more
OUTCOME: Litigation Stayed Pending Arbitration
Following commencement of arbitration for brand compensation pursuant to Wis. Stat. 125.33(10), alleged successor wholesalers of craft beet brought a declaratory judgment action that brand compensation ... was not available and moved to stay the arbitration. District Court determined that invocation of arbitration rights was proper and stayed the litigation pending the arbitration.
OUTCOME: Reversed and Remanded
5th Circuit Reversed District Court Order granting Summary Judgment in favor of Defendant Railroad, holding that internal investigation did not afford sufficient due process considerations for doctrine ... of collateral estoppel
OUTCOME:
The case concerns a former conductor for BNSF Railway Company who suffered severe injuries to his right hand and wrist. During his shift on July 31, 2015, the conductor performed a roll-by inspection ... on a passing train near Coram, Montana. When he went to exit the locomotive, the front door latch initially stuck before swinging open. When it swung, the conductor felt a pop in his wrist, but the initial, stinging pain went away. He dismounted off of the locomotive without difficulty, but when he attempted to reboard the locomotive after the roll-by, he lost grip strength in his right wrist and feel to the ballast below. The injury ultimately required him to be transported down to Missoula for emergency surgery. Following the rules imposed on him by the railroad, the conductor notified BNSF of his injury. Rather than working with its employee on recovery, BNSF reacted by noticing the employee for an investigation, based on its half-informed suspicion that the conductor had made up the injury, despite multiple witnesses seeing him before and after the fall and noticing a marked difference in his behavior, demeanor, and physical appearance as a result of the broken and dislocated bones in his wrist. Its alleged basis for its conspiracy theory was that the engineer did not remember the conductor specifically mentioning the fall to him after he had climbed back onto the locomotive and video from the crew shanty showed the conductor using his left hand to move some papers around on a table and open a door. Despite a clean discipline record and statements from multiple eye witnesses, the railroad fired the conductor on the trumped up charge of dishonesty in violation of GCOR 1.6. Chris represented the conductor before the United States Department of Labor. After a two-month investigation, OSHA found that BNSF’s termination of the conductor’s employment violated the FRSA, as it had been retaliatory for his reporting of a personal injury. OSHA ordered BNSF to “immediately reinstate” the conductor, and awarded back pay and compensatory damages of $6,000. At the time of OSHA’s order, the damages in the case totaled approximately $65,000 plus reasonable attorneys fees. Chris reached out to BNSF to get the conductor back to work. Rather than working with Chris to put the conductor back to work, BNSF rejected YJB’s proposal. The case eventually made its way to Federal Court in the District of Montana, where the $65,000 OSHA order became a $2,171,154.50 Federal Court judgment. The parties filed post-trial motions, and on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 (almost exactly three years after OSHA had issued its order), the Federal Court issued its ruling. The 68-page order overwhelmingly rejected all of BNSF’s challenges to the verdict. The $65,000 OSHA award, which then became a $2.17 million jury verdict, increased to a more-than $3.2 million judgment that BNSF owes for its unlawful conduct. BNSF appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed in all respects. By the time the case finally resolved, BNSF paid nearly $4 million, plus its own legal fees and csts.
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