Armbruster Dripps Blotevogel LLC partners Charles Armbruster and Michael Blotevogel secured a $525,000 verdict in the Central District of Illinois for a railroad employee who was injured attempting to lift railroad ties that had fallen onto a public road. The employee testified his injuries occurred because his employer refused to replace a “tie crane,” that had failed several years before, so he had to work with unsafe equipment for the job. The employee did not obtain medical treatment until more than a year after the incident, due to concern the railroad would retaliate against him if he did. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the judgment in all respects, rejecting the railroad’s argument that it only had to provide reasonably safe equipment, not the safest equipment.
