Alby v. BNSF Ry. Co.
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Alby v. BNSF Ry. Co.
Opinion of the Court
Following a jury verdict in this case arising under the Federal Employers Liability Act, appellant challenges the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law to respondent and argues that the *565court erred in applying the federal postjudgment interest rate. Respondent challenges the court's denial of its motion for a new trial. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
FACTS
Respondent BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) employed appellant James Alby for approximately 20 years as a conductor and engineer. In January 2014, Alby experienced back pain and could not move. Alby's treating orthopedic surgeon and medical-causation expert, Dr. Stefano Sinicropi, concluded that Alby suffered from degenerative disc disease and a disc herniation. Beginning in the spring of 2014, Alby underwent multiple medical procedures to address his back injury.
In June 2014, Alby sued BNSF under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA),
Alby testified at trial, along with Beau Price (BNSF's Director of Locomotive and Air Brake Systems), Dennis Luft (Alby's coworker at BNSF), Alan Blackwell (engineer), Dr. Robert Andres (ergonomist), and Dr. Sinicropi (Alby's medical-causation expert). The jury returned a special verdict in Alby's favor, finding that BNSF violated the LIA and that the violations caused, in whole or in part, Alby's back injury. The jury also found that BNSF did not violate any federal track regulations and was not negligent. The jury awarded Alby $1,888,264.90 in damages. The district court ordered collateral offsets to the award and ruled that the federal postjudgment interest rate is applicable to the resulting judgment of $1,524,663.79.
BNSF moved for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) and, in the alternative, a new trial. The district court granted JMOL to BNSF, vacated the judgment in favor of Alby, and dismissed Alby's claims. The court also denied BNSF's motion for a new trial.
This appeal follows.
ISSUES
I. Did the district court err by granting JMOL to BNSF?
II. Did the district court err by concluding that the federal postjudgment interest rate applies?
III. Did the district court abuse its discretion by denying BNSF's motion for a new trial?
ANALYSIS
I.
Although the district court agreed with the jury's special verdict-that BNSF violated the LIA by using faulty shock absorbers and seats in the locomotives in which Alby rode-the court granted JMOL to BNSF, concluding that Alby had failed to establish causation between BNSF's LIA violations and his injuries. Alby argues that the district court erred by granting BNSF's motion. A district court should grant JMOL
only in those unequivocal cases where (1) in light of the evidence as a whole, it would clearly be the duty of the district court to set aside a contrary verdict as being manifestly against the entire evidence, or where (2) it would be contrary to the law applicable to the case.
*566Jerry's Enters., Inc., v. Larkin, Hoffman, Daly & Lindgren, Ltd. ,
"A motion for judgment as a matter of law is reviewed de novo." Daly v. McFarland ,
Alby's claim originates under FELA. "Under FELA, a railroad 'shall be liable in damages to any employee suffering injury from the negligence' of the railroad or its employees." Kinworthy v. Soo Line R.R. ,
FELA allows a railroad employee to bring a claim for a violation of the LIA, which imposes a duty to provide safe equipment on interstate railroads but does not provide a right of action to injured employees. Kinworthy v. Soo Line R.R. ,
If an employee can prove negligence and that the railroad's negligence "played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury, then the carrier is answerable in damages," even if the injury or manner in which it occurred was not "probable or foreseeable." McBride ,
*567Gallick v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. ,
Here, the jury found that BNSF violated the LIA and that the violation was "a cause, in whole or in part, of Mr. Alby's back injury." Following BNSF's posttrial motion for JMOL, the district court agreed that BNSF violated the LIA by using ineffective seats and shock absorbers but concluded that "several substantial defects in Alby's evidence of causation" existed. For example, the court noted that Alby's medical-causation expert, Dr. Sinicropi, failed to provide the necessary causation evidence for Alby to succeed with his claim because he "never tied the specific LIA violations" to Alby's injuries. The court also discredited Dr. Sinicropi's testimony for lacking proper foundation because he allegedly depended on "common sense" rather than his expert qualifications to form his opinion and because he did not perform a differential etiology to help form his opinion. Alby argues that he presented ample evidence to support the jury's verdict that BNSF's LIA violations caused in whole, or in part, his injuries. We agree.
The Supreme Court established a "relaxed standard of causation" in Rogers , explaining that in FELA cases, "the test of a jury case is simply whether the proofs justify with reason the conclusion that employer negligence played any part, even the slightest , in producing the injury or death for which damages are sought."
BNSF is correct that Dr. Sinicropi did not refer to defective seats or shock absorbers in his report, but Dr. Sinicropi stated that "Alby's occupational exposures were a cause, in whole or in part," of his injuries. He also stated that "repeated exposure" to "whole-body vibration, shocks, jolts, vertical bouncing, and rocking back and forth ... can and does cause premature and progressive degeneration of the spine." Dr. Sinicropi then stated:
[T]he general understanding is they're, you know, being thrown around, kind of bouncing up and down on their, on their seats. The word that is thrown around by many of these folks is they have a very rough ride, and that's come up in, in previous testimony before. And we've also heard patients who have said that it's like being in a hundred accidents, and I don't remember if the term is a hundred accidents a day or a thousand accidents a day, but neither are pleasant.
Dr. Sinicropi concluded that Alby's cumulative-trauma back injury was caused by "his occupation as an engineer and going through the riding conditions that he did."
Dr. Sinicropi's report and testimony clearly connect Alby's "rough riding,"
*568while a BNSF conductor and engineer, to Alby's back injuries. Based on the evidence, the jury could reasonably attribute the "rough riding" to either the defective seats or shock absorbers. Under FELA's "relaxed causation standard," we need only decide if any evidence exists showing that BNSF's violations of the LIA played any part, even the slightest, in Alby's injuries. Under the applicable relaxed standard of proof, we conclude that Alby provided adequate evidence that BNSF's LIA violations caused his injuries.
Because the record supports the jury finding on causation, we conclude that the district court erred in granting BNSF's motion for JMOL. We therefore reverse the court's grant of JMOL for BNSF and reinstate the judgment in Alby's favor. See Blair v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. ,
II.
Alby argues that if we reinstate the judgment in his favor, we also should rule that the rate of postjudgment interest is governed by Minnesota law, not federal law, because postjudgment interest is a procedural matter to which state law should apply.
State and federal courts maintain concurrent jurisdiction over FELA claims, with plaintiffs choosing between the two to litigate a FELA claim.
Thus, a state court faced with the question of whether a particular issue in the case is governed by federal or state law must determine whether the issue is a "procedural" matter in which the state applies its own law, or a "substantive" matter in which the state applies federal law.
*569Id . We review de novo whether FELA preempts state law. See Boyd ,
"[Q]uestions concerning the measure of damages in a FELA action are federal in character." Norfolk & W. Ry. v. Liepelt ,
Here, utilizing Monessen 's two-part procedural-substantive test, we conclude that postjudgment interest constitutes a part of a FELA plaintiff's "proper measure of damages," and that postjudgment interest therefore is an issue of substance that is governed by federal law. Our conclusion that postjudgment interest is substantive "is consistent with the principles of national uniformity intended by Congress when it enacted FELA." See Kinworthy ,
III.
BNSF argues that we should reverse the district court's denial of its motion for a new trial because the district court abused its discretion by admitting Dr. Sinicropi's testimony and failing to give the jury BNSF's proposed apportionment jury instruction. We disagree.
"[An appellate court] review[s] a district court's new trial decision under an abuse of discretion standard." Moorhead Econ. Dev. Auth. v. Anda ,
A.
The district court ruled in a pretrial order that Alby could admit Dr. Sinicropi's testimony because as "a treating physician with a great deal of experience in treating patients with similar backgrounds and injuries," Dr. Sinicropi would "have opinions regarding the cause of his patient's injuries that would lead him to advise his patient about precautions and work restrictions." Dr. Sinicropi testified about Alby as his patient; he discussed the results of his examinations of, and treatment provided to, Alby; he testified about his experience treating other railway employees for injuries similar to Alby's; and he explained that he relied on Alby's job description in developing his opinion.
BNSF argues that Dr. Sinicropi "repeatedly asserted that he was not qualified to opine on what specific job duties or forces caused Alby's degenerative back condition because it is outside the scope of his expertise," and that the court abused its discretion by admitting his testimony because he was not qualified "to opine specifically on LIA causation" and his opinion lacked a reliable foundation. In denying BNSF's motion for a new trial, the district court concluded that because BNSF subjected Dr. Sinicropi "to rigorous cross-examination on the foundation" for his opinion, BNSF was not "prejudiced by testimony that [it] heavily contested" and was "contradicted by the testimony of [its] own experts."
Minnesota appellate courts "review a district court's evidentiary rulings, including rulings on foundational reliability, for an abuse of discretion." Doe v. Archdiocese of St. Paul ,
Minnesota Rule of Evidence 702 provides that:
If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise. The opinion must have foundational reliability.
Under rule 702 : (1) the witness must qualify as an expert; (2) the expert's opinion must possess a foundational reliability; (3) the testimony must help the trier of fact; and (4) if the testimony involves a novel scientific theory, it must satisfy the Frye-Mack standard. Archdiocese of St. Paul ,
*571In re Source Code Evidentiary Hearings in Implied Consent Matters ,
Citing to only a single supporting case, Smith v. CSX Transp., Inc. ,
In this case, Alby's causation expert, Dr. Sinicropi, a physician at the Midwest Spine Institute in Stillwater, Minnesota, was Alby's treating physician. Dr. Sinicropi's curriculum vitae and testimony reveal that he received his Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University in 1999 and served as chief resident in orthopedic surgery from 2004 to 2005. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and has published multiple academic articles and book chapters on orthopedic surgery and treatment. Dr. Sinicropi conducts "around 700 surgeries a year" in 20 locations of the Midwest Spine Institute and has treated "several patients" for spinal injuries related to their work as railroad workers.
Dr. Sinicropi obtained and reviewed Alby's relevant medical history and job duties, and he met with and treated Alby multiple times. In addition to his knowledge gained treating Alby, Dr. Sinicropi based his causation opinion on his experience treating numerous patients with similar injuries, not on allegedly analogous sports-medicine experience, as in Smith . And BNSF rigorously cross-examined Dr. Sinicropi about Alby's injuries and the basis for his causation opinion, and offered its own expert's opinions, which contradicted Dr. Sinicropi's opinion. BNSF's cross-examination allowed the jury to weigh Dr. Sinicropi's opinion against its own expert. See Raze v. Mueller ,
B.
The district court gave the jury CIVJIG 91.40. See 4A Minnesota Practice , CIVJIG 91.40 (2017) (providing jury instruction for pre-existing condition-aggravation). BNSF argues that the district court abused its discretion and committed reversible error by giving the jury this instruction and rejecting BNSF's proposed apportionment jury instruction. The district court has broad discretion in determining jury instructions and appellate courts do not reverse in the absence of *572an abuse of discretion. Hilligoss v. Cargill, Inc. ,
The "propriety of jury instructions concerning the measure of damages in a FELA action is an issue of substance determined by federal law." St. Louis Sw. Ry. Co. v. Dickerson ,
BNSF argues that the district court "improperly instructed the jury to award damages for causes that were unrelated to the alleged LIA violations." It argues that "the 'occurrence' described by Alby and his witness related almost entirely to rough riding caused by track conditions, for which the jury found no BNSF negligence or violation." And, citing to Sauer v. Burlington N. R.R. ,
In Sauer , a railway employee injured his back while working and sued his employer under FELA.
In this case, the district court determined that apportionment jury instructions were not necessary because "there was very little evidence about Alby's prior back injuries, their seriousness, the probability that they could cause symptoms in the future, or their contribution" to Alby's injuries. Similar to Sauer , and contrary to BNSF's argument, the court's aggravation jury instruction allowed the jury to diminish Alby's damages as they felt appropriate based on the evidence presented at trial.
Moreover, as the Supreme Court emphasized in Ayers , "whether the immediate reason for an employee's injury was the proven negligence of the defendant railroad or some cause not identified from the evidence" is irrelevant.
DECISION
Because Alby satisfied the relaxed standard of proof applicable to FELA claims, *573by providing adequate evidence that BNSF's LIA violations caused his injuries, the district court erred by granting JMOL to BNSF. The district court did not err by ruling that the federal postjudgment interest rate applies to a state court judgment granted under FELA or abuse its discretion by denying BNSF's motion for a new trial.
Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
Under Minnesota law, judgments or awards over $50,000 accrue interest at a rate of ten percent per year until paid.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James ALBY v. BNSF RAILWAY COMPANY
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published