CSX Transportation sued for job-related injuries

A West Virginia man who worked for more than three decades for railroad giant CSX Transportation Inc. is suing the company in federal court in Philadelphia, alleging that cumulative job-related trauma led to the development of a series of physical injuries.

Philadelphia attorney Gregory John Hannon, of the firm Hannon & Palermo, P.C., filed the federal lawsuit Aug. 2 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of Gene A. King of Salt Rock, West Va.

According to the complaint, King, who began his career with CSX in 1976, discovered less than three years ago that he suffered from occupational injuries that eventually led to a total knee replacement surgery.

The injuries are traced to his constant “bending, crawling, kneeling, squatting, climbing [and] walking” along uneven railroad ballast, the lawsuit states.

“The aforesaid injuries were caused in whole or in part by the negligence, carelessness and recklessness of the Defendant …,” the lawsuit claims.

The complaint alleges that King has been unable to attend to his occupation because of his injuries, and as such has experienced financial loss, wage loss and loss of future earning capacity. He also may be required to undergo additional medical procedures, which will cost him more money than he has already spent on treatment for his injuries.

The lawsuit accuses the defendant of negligence, carelessness and recklessness for failing to provide King a safe place to work as required by the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, failing to provide King with a timely and adequate ergonomics program designed to prevent repetitive trauma to his knees, failing to periodically test employees like King for physical job-related trauma, requiring the plaintiff and others to be exposed to unsafe working conditions and failing to provide King with protective equipment designed to cut down on any potential knee trauma.

“The Defendant has a duty to provide a reasonably safe place to work,” the lawsuit states. “It has a non-delegable duty to ensure that the Plaintiff has adequate qualified assistance to perform the functions of his work without unnecessary risk of injury to himself.”

The lawsuit does not specify the damages sought by King against CSX.

A jury trial has been demanded.

The federal case number is 2:11-cv-04983-JCJ.