Jury awards a former railroad employee $1.8 million after he claimed exposure to cleaning solvent at work in Louisville and Corbin caused permane

By James Bruggers
jbruggers@courier-journal.com
According to The Courier-Journal


A Jefferson Circuit Court jury has awarded a former railroad employee $1.8 million after he claimed exposure to cleaning solvent at work in Louisville and Corbin caused permanent brain damage.

Terry L. Williams, 59, of Corbin, had targeted his former employer, CSX Transportation, in the lawsuit. He declined to be interviewed.



CSX spokesman Gary Sease declined to comment. Sease has previously said that the company does not believe solvents sickened workers at CSX or companies that CSX acquired, such as the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

But the 9-3 verdict in the two-week trial is the latest in a string of litigation in several states involving hundreds of railroad workers.

The Louisville jury awarded Williams $500,000 for medical expenses, $500,000 for loss of income, $500,000 for past mental and physical pain and suffering and $500,000 for future mental and physical pain and suffering, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Because the jury attributed 10 percent of the negligence to Williams, CSX will be obligated to pay 90 percent of the award, or $1.8 million.

Williams worked for the railroad 34 years, leaving in 2000 after having been diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy. Williams' career as a machinist working on locomotives started at the L&N's old South Louisville shops and ended at a maintenance facility in Corbin.

In 2001 The Courier-Journal found that more than 600 U.S. railroad employees had been diagnosed with brain damage after working years with solvents with little or no protection.

CSX had, as of 2001, paid $35 million in settlements or awards to 466 current or former employees who filed claims under the federal compensation law for railroad employees. Jury verdicts have gone both ways, with railroad companies claiming other factors may have caused illnesses.

Railroads largely phased out use of the chemicals in question by the early 1990s.

Earlier this year, researchers in West Virginia documented that solvents used by railroad workers shrank an area that helps the two sides of the brain communicate.

Contact Bagolie Friedman Injury Lawyers to discuss your potential railroad claim.