(The following story by Janet Kelley appeared at Lancaster Online on April 2.)
LANCASTER, Pa. — A federal judge has rejected the appeal of a $24.2 million verdict against two railroad companies for injuries suffered by two teenagers climbing on a train car parked near Lancaster in 2002.
U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence F. Stengel, who presided over the trial, handed down a 60-page opinion this week rejecting the arguments raised by the responsible railroad companies, Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Corp., denying the companies’ request for a new trial or to reduce the amount of the award.
The jury could have divided the blame between the young men and the railroad companies, but after the trial in October 2006, it ruled solely in favor of the young men.
The men, Jeffrey Klein and Brett Birdwell, both 17 and both from Stroudsburg at the time, were severely burned by a high voltage wire when they climbed on top of a railroad car parked near New Holland Avenue in August 2002. They were in town visiting Klein’s mother.
Klein suffered serious burns over 75 percent of his body and remains permanently scarred and disabled with limited use of his left hand. Birdwell suffered serious burns to 12 percent of his body.
“The evidence of Jeffrey Klein’s pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, disfigurement and humiliation was compelling,” Stengel wrote in his opinion. “There was strong and persuasive evidence of his horrific injuries and the long and painful treatment he has endured.”
Stengel wrote that the jury was instructed to make “a fair assessment” based on the evidence. And, the judge noted that, “it certainly did.”
The amounts were determined by their medical bills and by calculating lost future earnings, pain, suffering and loss of life pleasures, and punitive damages.
“One simple truth of this case is that there was more than sufficient evidence presented in support of each claim,” Stengel wrote. “Another simple truth of this case is that Amtrak and Norfolk Southern really presented no evidence.”
During the trial, Stengel wrote, the railroad companies’ attorneys “demeaned” the two young men “for their lack of intelligence, judgment and common sense in choosing to climb to the top of the boxcar.”
“Yet, they attributed to them a superior intelligence, a refined sense of deductive logic and an educated sense of thermodynamics,” based on Klein’s one train ride and occasional car trips along New Holland Avenue, Stengel wrote.
“They argued that Birdwell should have been equally savvy because of his one subway ride at a much younger age,” Stengel wrote, adding, “These were silly arguments.”
“The verdict was against the great weight of the defendants’ bluster,” Stengel wrote. “It was not against the great weight of the evidence.”
The young men’s attorney, Joseph F. Roda, of Lancaster, explained after the verdict that the case wasn’t about the teenagers’ admitted trespassing, but was about the railroad knowing there was a hidden high voltage hazard on the property.
They left their skateboards on the ground and climbed a ladder leading to a catwalk on the roof of the boxcar, hoping to see a view of the city, Roda told the jury,
But, Roda explained, the 12,500 volts of electricity running through an uninsulated catenary wire suspended about 6 feet above the boxcar was enough to arc a debilitating jolt into Klein without his even touching the wire.
“He thought he’d been struck by lightning,” Roda said at the time of the trial.
Birdwell, who saw his friend suddenly collapse before him with his clothes on fire, was burned while trying to help Klein, Roda said.
Jurors determined Norfolk Southern and Amtrak could have prevented the accident by placing warning signs alerting people to the electrified catenary wires, which power locomotives, Roda said.