Portland (ME Press Herald,4/24:
Court upholds damages against Pan Am Railways in Waterville case
The appeals court ruling affirms a judge's award of $250,000 to a worker injured and cites evidence of 'a corporate culture more focused on retaliation than on safety.'
A federal appeals court has upheld an award of $250,000 in punitive damages against Pan Am Railways after a lower court found that the railroad illegally retaliated against an employee for reporting a safety hazard and injury at the company’s Waterville rail yard.
The ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston upholds the finding of an administrative law judge after a conductor, Jason Raye, told supervisors about a pile of old railroad ties next to a track in the yard in Waterville in 2011. A couple of weeks later, Raye stepped off his train onto the pile of ties and sprained his ankle.
Raye missed a day of work because of the sprain, and that required Pan Am to report the injury to the Federal Railroad Administration.
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