(The following story by Howard Pankratz appeared on the Denver Post website on April 9.)
DENVER — A $6 million Denver jury verdict for a Union Pacific employee who fell down inside a locomotive and said the railroad then intentionally destroyed evidence has been overturned because the trial judge became an advocate for the employee.
The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Denver District Judge Frank Martinez injected himself “into the advocacy process on the plaintiff’s behalf” and by doing so denied the railroad a fair trial.
Three times during the trial, Martinez read an instruction to the jury that said because Union Pacific failed to produce key documents, the jury could infer the evidence contained in them was unfavorable to the railroad.
“The court did more than give undue emphasis to one facet of the case; by its actions, it became an advocate for (the) plaintiff and deprived the railroad of a fair trial,” the opinion said.
In ordering a new trial, the appellate court didn’t hold Union Pacific blameless. It noted that the railroad’s employees knew the plaintiff, Frank Aloi, had been injured and was going to file a claim. Yet railroad officials allowed the documents relating to the accident to be destroyed under a regulation that permits destruction of inspection reports and maintenance records after 92 days.
Union Pacific witnesses testified that the documents in the case weren’t recovered because of the turnover in claims agents, saying that even though some of the railroad employees knew of the accident, the documents were discarded.
In September 2002, the Denver jury took only two hours to return its verdict in the Aloi case.
Aloi was a freight conductor whose job it was to couple and uncouple train cars and throw track switches. He claimed he was disabled from injuries to his shoulder, neck and lower back after falling down a flight of stairs inside a locomotive.