Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 10, 1993 TAG: 9304100220
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NS TOLD TO PAY EX-WORKER $4.7 MILLION
Norfolk Southern Corp. was ordered Friday to pay $4.7 million to an ex-signalman who was injured in 1987.It was one of the largest personal injury verdicts ever awarded in Roanoke.
A jury recommended that $5 million be given to Ralph R. Hodges, 40, of Roanoke. But because legal constraints do not allow awards greater than what a plaintiff asks for, the award was lowered to $4.7 million.
"The jury felt that our fellow was hurt pretty bad," said Roanoke lawyer Tyler Moore, who, along with Richard Cranwell, represented Hodges during the five-day trial.
Hodges' lawyer argued that he had lost more than $1 million in future wages. He has had vertebrae fused in his neck and lower back and "can't bend over to tie his shoestrings," Moore said.
The amount awarded, however, can mitigate "a complete, total absolute destruction of his health . . . for the rest of his life," Moore said.
A lawyer representing NS disagreed.
"The verdict is completely unreasonable," said James Johnson. "We don't understand it." Immediately following the verdict, a motion was made to have it set aside.
Johnson argued that Hodges was at least partially to blame for the accident. "We really don't feel he was entitled to compensation."
"We consider it to be so out of line with common sense and reason," said Wiley Mitchell, the company's general counsel for litigation. He said it was the largest award against the railroad in Roanoke in at least a decade.
If the verdict is not set aside, NS will appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court, Johnson said.
A few days after floods in the fall of 1987, Hodges was working on a signal box in Huddleston. He had been on the job about 16 months.
A signal-box door weighing more than 60 pounds fell on Hodges' neck, and he has been disabled ever since, Johnson said.
Hodges' lawyers argued that NS didn't provide a safe workplace for its employees, and that NS should have had an emergency response team that "should have stabilized the area before bringing in untrained people to work in the yards," Johnson said.
Circuit Judge Roy Willet heard the case, which was brought under the federal Employers Liability Act, and determined that the railroad was negligent. It was the jury's duty to determine the amount of the award.
The lawsuit was brought against Norfolk & Western Railway, which employed Hodges at the time, and is an operating subsidiary of NS.
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