BUFFALO, N.Y. - John Murphy, a former Hamburg-based locomotive engineer whose career ended after a fall six years ago, was awarded $930,401 by a Buffalo jury, court officials told the Buffalo News.
The self-insured CSX Transportation company was ordered to pay Murphy, now 69, for cervical, rotator cuff and closed-head injuries he suffered Aug. 28, 2003.
Murphys attorneys said he was attempting to start a locomotive engine in the railroads Niagara Yard in Niagara County when an oil spill near the engine caused him to fall off the locomotive and suffer the injuries.
Murphy and his wife now live near Tampa, Fla., his attorneys said. Though ambulatory, Murphy will need medical care for the rest of his life, his Buffalo attorneys said.
The verdict followed a nearly three-week trial before State Supreme Court Justice Rose H. Sconiers. CSX attorneys could not be reached to comment about a possible appeal.
(This item appeared Feb. 20, 2009, in the Buffalo News.)
