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McCarra v. Illinois Central Railroad Co.9/25/2001
AFFIRMED.
In this wrongful death action, after trial, the jury found that Illinois Central Railroad Company was negligent but that its negligence was not a cause of plaintiff's death. Tommy McCarra, the decedent's widow, appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm the decision of the trial court.
FACTS
In October of 1959, James McCarra began working for defendant, Illinois Central Railroad Company ("Illinois Central"), as a clerk. Over the next 33 years, he worked his way up to a management position with Illinois Central. In 1985, Mr. McCarra was transferred to Illinois Central's Mayes Yard in Harahan, Louisiana, where he worked as an assistant Trainmaster and, later, a roving Yardmaster. According to Mr. McCarra's supervisor, both of those jobs entailed mostly administrative work performed in the Trainmaster's Office at the Mayes Yard.
In the fall of 1992, Anheuser-Busch, a customer of Illinois Central's with a distribution facility adjacent to the Mayes Yard, experienced a strike by its employees. Illinois Central's regular yard crews, made up of union employees, honored the Anheuser-Busch employees' strike and refused to cross the picket line at Anheuser-Busch. In order to fulfill its commitment to its customer, Illinois Central sent its management employees to perform the necessary work at the Anheuser-Busch facility.
On September 9, 1992, James McCarra reported to work at Illinois Central's Mayes Yard at about 4:00 p.m. That afternoon, Mr. McCarra and his supervisor, Carl Sheridan, the trainmaster for Illinois Central's Mayes Yard, performed the work for Anheuser-Busch that was usually done by a yard crew. Mr. Sheridan drove the locomotive attached to the boxcars to be delivered to Anheuser-Busch while Mr. McCarra did the necessary groundwork to allow the train to proceed from the Mayes Yard to the Anheuser-Busch facility. The groundwork involved disembarking from the train, lining switches, and uncoupling the railcars from the locomotive.
According to Sheridan, Mr. McCarra had to line three switches on the railroad tracks within the Mayes Yard to allow to train to move onto the main track, which leads to Anheuser-Busch. Mr. McCarra then lined the switch allowing the train to enter the Anheuser-Busch facility, and, after the train was properly positioned, Mr. McCarra uncoupled the locomotive from the railcars. Sheridan then coupled the locomotive with empty railcars that needed to be removed from Anheuser-Busch and Mr. McCarra threw the switch to allow the train back out onto the main railroad track.
After traveling about one-half mile back towards the Mayes Yard, Mr. McCarra disembarked near the Hickory Street overpass to throw the switch necessary to allow the train back into the yard. When Sheridan, who was driving the train, approached that switch, he noticed that it had not been lined. After attempting to contact Mr. McCarra, Sheridan stopped the train, disembarked and lined the switch. When Sheridan turned around, he saw Mr. McCarra lying on the ground near the track. The emergency room physician at Elmwood Hospital determined that Mr. McCarra had suffered a heart attack. Mr. McCarra died later that evening.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On September 7, 1995, Tommy McCarra, the decedent's widow, filed the instant lawsuit against Illinois Central Railroad company under the Federal Employers Liability Act ("FELA"), alleging that James McCarra's heart attack was caused by the railroad's negligence in "misassigning" him to do manual labor in the switching yard on September 9, 1992 and failure to properly maintain its equipment and switches.
The matter proceeded to trial on Septe
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