HELENA, Mont. — According to a story from the Associated Press, federal law does not prevent a former Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway employee from suing the company for allegedly trying to bilk him out of a settlement for his on-the-job injuries, the state Supreme Court said Tuesday.
While the Federal Employers’ Liability Act governs compensation for injured railroad workers, it doesn’t deal with claims for harm allegedly caused to people not on the payroll, the court said.
In such cases, lawsuits can be filed in state courts, the justices unanimously decided. To rule otherwise would leave people like Robert Reidelbach with no remedy for the wrong he claims was done by BNSF, the five-judge panel said.
The ruling revives the suit filed by Reidelbach, who worked for the railroad for about 20 years in a job that involved much heavy lifting. He had several back injuries over the years, and they eventually forced him to quit working in December 1998. He had back surgery in 1999.
BNSF offered to continue paying Reidelbach, oversee his medical care and propose a fair settlement with him if he agreed to not pursue a claim under the federal liability law. The company said the wages paid to Reidelbach would be deducted from the eventual settlement.
But BNSF never made an official settlement offer over the next two years. An informal proposal for a $280,000 was rejected by Reidelbach as too low. He asked for $450,000. When the railroad said no, Reidelbach sued and the wage payments were halted.
In his suit, Reidelbach accused the company of using claims practices that were unfair and fraudulent. District Judge Julie Macek of Great Falls threw out the suit, saying the federal law regulating injured railroad workers’ compensation prevented Reidelbach from suing BNSF.
That conclusion was incorrect because Reidelbach’s claim deals with an off-the-job injury, and the federal law doesn’t address the claims practices that railroads use, the Supreme Court said. Therefore, the federal law cannot pre-empt state law that allows Reidelbach to sue in state court, the court said.
The federal law provides Reidelbach with no means of resolving his case against BNSF, said Justice Patricia Cotter. It is inconceivable that Congress intended the law to also prohibit an injured rail worker from seeking a remedy under state law, she said.