(The following story by Ken Rodriguez appeared on the San Antonio Express-News website on March 23.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Without using a lawyer, Wayne Hale just squeezed a few million dollars out of Union Pacific for wrecking his life.
Without going to court, Hale negotiated a seven-figure settlement after losing three family members in a train accident that choked Southwest Bexar County with toxic gas.
Though Wayne and his wife, Mary, are not allowed to disclose the amount, a family member says the Hales collected “more than $2 million but less than $5 million.”
For the nation’s largest railroad, the settlement represents a small price for doing business.
Union Pacific spends almost as much time in court as it does on the tracks.
In one case, 12,273 people filed claims after a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in Eunice, La.
After reading that story, I asked a UP spokesman: On average, how many times a year does your company get sued?
The spokesman said UP would not discuss past or present litigation. That was a strange reply.
Just last year, UP announced that it was settling the case in Louisiana for $65.5 million. The company said insurers would reimburse the railroad for the payout. And most important, UP noted, the settlement would not impact company earnings.
I suppose this was UP’s way of saying, “When we make headlines for paying a multimillion-dollar settlement, please, do not feel sorry for us.”
OK, we won’t.
As UP won’t disclose any other settlement information, allow me to share what I’ve found from 2004:
In October, Union Pacific lost its appeal of a $30 million jury award to an Arkansas man injured at a crossing.
The plaintiff, Christopher Barber, suffered partial paralysis when a UP train struck his garbage truck in 1998. The crossing had no lights or gates.
UP argued that the judgment was excessive. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal without comment.
In October, a UP engineer in Iowa won $8.7 million from his former company.
In 2003, a jury awarded Patrick Johnson $4.1 million for injuries sustained after his locomotive hit a broken rail.
Union Pacific appealed the verdict. One year later, an appeals court affirmed the judgment and ordered UP to pay Johnson another $4.6 million in interest.
In June, a jury in Angleton awarded more than $18 million to the family of a truck driver who was struck and killed by a UP train.
A line of trees blocked Gary Slater’s view at the accident site. The crossing had no guards.
In May, Union Pacific and four trucking companies agreed to a $15.5 million settlement with a woman injured in a fiery crash in New Mexico.
Janet Dutler lost her husband in the accident. She also suffered head injuries and lost her leg.
In April, a St. Louis City Circuit Court awarded $3 million in damages to an injured UP railroad worker.
A 5-pound metal sign struck Greg Haskin on the head as he was climbing into a railroad car in 2001.
Haskin said the blow left him with severe, recurring headaches.
In January, UP and Metra commuter rail in Chicago agreed to a $7 million settlement in a 1995 crash that killed seven high school students and injured 21.
Other defendants in the case paid $20 million in damages.
Clearly, some jury awards appear unfair. A rail worker with splitting headaches, for example, shouldn’t be getting anywhere near what the Hales got after losing three family members.
Wayne isn’t complaining, though. A 68-year-old retired transit consultant, he’s satisfied with his settlement. And besides, he didn’t have to pay attorney’s fees.
But he almost took Union Pacific to court. UP, Wayne says, initially wanted him to sign a settlement statement absolving the railroad of wrongdoing.
“I had to allege that there was a wreck, allege that I was injured, and even if there was a wreck, it wasn’t their fault,” he says. “I said that was totally unacceptable.”
In the end, Hale says, Union Pacific came around and put in writing what it had put out in damage control last year.
It was all their fault.