Clarida and Adams Obtain Summary Judgment on Behalf of Railroad Client

Plaintiff brought a FELA claim against his employing railroad alleging that a collision with a truck at a public crossing was caused by the railroad’s failure to provide him with a reasonably safe place to work. Plaintiff’s Complaint also included a separate Georgia common law personal injury claim against the employers of the truck driver. In rejecting the FELA claim against the railroad, the Court found that the railroad did not control the public road’s storage length, configuration or grade leading to the crossing. Furthermore, the Court found that the railroad did not control the selection of warning devices at the crossing or whether the crossing should be closed, and the railroad therefore could not breach a duty to the Plaintiff on that basis. Importantly, the Court rejected the argument that a railroad’s non-delegable duty to provide its employees with a reasonably safe place to work extended outside of its own property when an employee’s work did not require him to enter a 3rd party’s property. Finally, the Court rejected Plaintiff’s failure to train on how to react to an imminent collision claim on the basis that Plaintiff failed to show how that training would have mitigated Plaintiff’s injuries.

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