After $100K Offer, Pa. Jury Awards $7.3M to Rail Worker Hit by SEPTA Train

“To evaluate your risk by only offering $100,000, which is a cost of defense type of offer, was shortsighted and, frankly, an arrogant approach for Nationwide to be taking,” Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky’s Jeffrey Goodman said.

A Philadelphia jury has awarded more than $7 million to a rail worker who suffered numerous facial and chest fractures when he was struck by a SEPTA train while on a jobsite.

The $7.29 million verdict, which was handed down in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta’s courtroom Feb. 21, was nearly 73 times the final settlement offer from the only remaining defendant at trial, Independence Constructors Corp.

According to counsel for the plaintiff, Jeffrey Goodman and Sam Dordick of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, Nationwide, which insures ICC, offered only $100,000, despite mediation and the fact that the plaintiff, Jesse Hernandez, had accrued a more than $1 million medical lien.

“To evaluate your risk by only offering $100,000, which is a cost of defense type of offer, was shortsighted and, frankly, an arrogant approach for Nationwide to be taking,” Goodman said. “As we’re coming back from the pandemic and we as lawyers are trying to move things forward, carriers so egregiously misevaluating a case isn’t productive for the process. But that’s why cases need to go to verdict sometimes.”

Prior to trial, SEPTA settled for the $250,000 statutory damages cap for state agencies. After about three hours of deliberations, the jury ultimately found ICC 70% liable, SEPTA 29% liable and Hernandez 1% liable for the injuries.

A spokesman for Nationwide said the company was reviewing its options to appeal the verdict.

Hernandez’s case centered on arguments that the defendants’ used inadequate safety measures and failed to protect Hernandez from the injuries.

According to court papers, the collision occurred on March 12, 2018, when Hernandez was working to install new signal equipment on a SEPTA line. He was working for a separate company. Hernandez’s pretrial memo said he and other workers had been working in a trench within four feet of the rail line. Hernandez’s memo further said that, under SEPTA’s contract with ICC, the company was responsible for safety.

Hernandez argued that given how closely they were working to the track, the line needed to be shut down while the work occurred. However, the memo said the defendants opted to use the so-called TAW, or train approach warning, method, where, rather than shutting down the rail, a watch person would keep an eye out for trains and then give a warning to workers so they could go to a predetermined safe spot while the train passed.

The parties’ pretrial memos offered differing takes regarding where Hernandez was when the collision occurred, with Hernandez arguing he was with the rest of the crew and ICC arguing that Hernandez moved out of the ditch toward the train. Goodman said this was a point of contention during trial as well.

Hernandez’s pretrial memo cited testimony from SEPTA saying that they should not have used the TAW method, but memos from both defendants also cited testimony that the train blew its horn and flashed its lights before passing the workers. ICC also said none of the 11 other workers on the site were injured and that the same TAW procedure had been used on that line more than 500 times in the weeks prior to the accident.

“The simple fact is that plaintiff would not have been hit if he had simply stayed where he was, which was on the opposite side of the trench, against a bridge abutting the tracks,” ICC’s memo said. “Instead, plaintiff ignored multiple warnings, stepped away from the abutting bridge, into the trench, and then climbed out of the trench into the train’s path.”

As a result of the crash, Hernandez suffered a fractured sternum, jaw and nose, as well as a traumatic brain injury. He was hospitalized for weeks, put on a feeding tube for more than eight months, and had to undergo reconstructive jaw surgery.

He also suffered from PTSD, depression and unrelenting jaw pain, the memo said.

According to Goodman, the defendant witnesses changed their stories during several stages of the litigation, which undermined their credibility, and then during trial, ICC sought to deflect blame onto SEPTA and Hernandez.

“All trial they tried to run from the safety promises they made, and it didn’t reflect well on them,” Goodman said.

The plaintiff’s final demand before trial was $11 million.

According to Goodman, delay damages should raise the total award to more than $8.4 million.