Court Overturns Jury Verdict for Railway on Prejudicial Evidentiary Error

A California appellate court overturned a jury verdict in favor of a railway, finding that the trial judge prejudicially erred in excluding the testimony of an injured worker’s expert witness. Terrence Richard was a brakeman for Union Pacific Railroad Co. On Feb. 21, 2016, Richard was assigned to route an incoming train from track 801 to Union Pacific’s City of Industry railyard. When the train arrived, Richard disconnected the rear locomotive from the back of the train. He climbed aboard the rear railcar and directed the locomotive engineer to pull forward. As the train mov...