CVN screenshot of defense attorney Justin Rodriguez of Atkinson Baker & Rodriguez P.C. delivering his opening statement
Phoenix, AZ - An Arizona state court jury heard opening statements Monday in a lawsuit filed by a former BNSF engineer blaming the company for injuries supposedly sustained in a fall on an oil-soaked locomotive, and the full trial is being webcast and recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
Plaintiff Marvin Carter sued BNSF after allegedly sustaining a major knee injury in 2018 while moving an inactive locomotive to a storage track. Carter claims BNSF forced him to work on an unsafe train, but an attorney for the company questioned whether or not Carter fell at all and suggested his knee issues were the result of previous unrelated injuries.
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In an opening statement steeped in railway terminology, attorney Patrick Moore told the Maricopa County jury that Carter discovered a broken valve had leaked oil all over a locomotive compartment early in the morning in 2018, but that the train still had to be moved to a storage location.
“He served BNSF loyally for decades, and he lost it all because the railroad put a defective locomotive in service and had Marvin work on it,” Moore said.
He described to jurors how Carter supposedly fell while crossing the oil-slicked floor to release a hand brake, and that the knee injury he sustained required two surgeries before he underwent a total knee replacement, which according to Moore has left him with severely limited mobility and unable to work.
“His old life is basically over,” Moore told jurors.
Carter is suing BNSF under the Federal Employers Liability Act, or FELA, a federal statute which allows rail workers to pursue work-related personal injury claims in state courts. Moore did not ask for a specific amount of damages in his opening, but defense attorney Justin Rodriguez told the jury he expected Moore to request “millions and millions of dollars.”
Rodriguez acknowledged an oil spill in the locomotive, but he repeatedly suggested Carter never slipped on it, noting that none of the other members of the train crew witnessed the accident, and that an audio recording of the workspace doesn’t have any evidence of a fall.
“You’re not going to hear a single thing after 7:56 when Mr. Carter asks for help,” Rodriguez said. “A thud. A cry. An expletive. Nothing.”
He questioned why Carter supposedly walked back and forth through the oily area multiple times, which he said violated a BNSF policy that called for him to wait after finding the spill and putting in a call for assistance. However if he felt accessing the brake was critical for safety he supposedly could have dismounted the train and walked along the ground.
“It wasn’t necessary for Mr. Carter to walk through the oil even one time,” Rodriguez stressed.
He also questioned the severity of Carter’s knee injury, describing how he’d returned to work relatively quickly after undergoing knee surgeries many years ago, and suggested that he could have aggravated those injuries at a trampoline park shortly before the alleged fall.
The trial before Judge Randall Warner is expected to take roughly two weeks to complete, and CVN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Martin Carter v. BNSF Railway Company, case number CV2019-014216 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com
