Former Norfolk Southern Railway Employee
Files Suit
March 18, 2009
A former Norfolk Southern Railway Company employee has filed a FELA lawsuit against his former employer, claiming that noise pollution on the job caused permanent injury to his ears. Sherman A. Yates sued Norfolk Southern in Illinois’ Madison County Circuit Court, seeking a judgment of more than $50,000 plus costs.
Yates worked for Norfolk Southern from 1974 to 2008, which qualifies him as a career railroad man. His claim states that over the course of his entire career he was subjected to excessive noise. As further basis for his complaint, his suit states that he suffered permanent injury to his hearing, which generated pain and mental anguish as well as lost earnings to which he should have been entitled. The suit goes on to request reimbursement for medical expenses and other costs in addition to the judgment for lost earnings, mental anguish and personal turmoil.
FELA lawsuits require the plaintiff to prove negligence on the part of the employer, and this case paints that negligence with a broad brush. In the documents filed with the suit Norfolk Southern is cited for negligence due to their failure to provide safe tools, failure to furnish proper equipment for job tasks, failure to provide the necessary personal protection equipment, failure to provide proper supervision and failure to warn the plaintiff of unsafe conditions.
Yates goes on to assert that he was assigned tasks that management knew would result in his injury, that he was knowingly assigned duties beyond his physical capacity, and that Norfolk Southern generally failed to provide a safe work place with instruction for safe work methods.
