Carman Injured Back While Repairing Coal Chute Door on Car – $700,000 Verdict. The plaintiff, a carman, repairs railroad coal cars. While reaching under a railroad coal car to pull out a seventy-two pound coal chute door that he was replacing, the plaintiff injured his back and missed six weeks of work, losing approximately $3,800 in wages. The plaintiff suffered a small central and lateral disc herniation at L5-S1. The plaintiff argued that the defendant did not provide a reasonably safe place to work in that the defendant failed to provide forklifts, cranes, ramps, or other equipment which other railroads use to remove coal chute doors and that the defendant failed to provide adequate training and instruction on the removal of coal door pans.
Moody, Strople & Kloeppel, Ltd., Attorney for the Plaintiff; Cecil L. Hatfield v. Norfolk and Western Rwy. Co.
