ITC’s Failure to Provide Safe Workplace Causes Serious and Permanent Injury to Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s Client

On August 29, 2022 Doyle Dennis Avery LLP filed suit against Intercontinental Terminals Company LLC (“ITC”) in Harris County, Texas.

Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client, a loyal and hard-working Railcar Switchman, was injured while working for ITC on or about July 17, 2022. He was engineering a train in the course and scope of his employment when he heard a loud pop. Specifically, the sound he heard was a knuckle coming out of the housing of the train. When the knuckle detached from the housing, the railcars behind Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client violently struck the train in which he was working. As a result, Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client sustained serious injuries to his back, knees, and body generally.

ITC is a common carrier and holds itself out to the public as a common carrier. Indeed, ITC contracts with the Port Terminal Railroad Association (“PTRA”), an Association of the Port of Houston Authority of Harris County, Houston Belt & Terminal Railway Co., and three common carrier railroad companies, including Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway and Kansas City Southern Railway Company, in order to connect to the mainline. ITC engages in the performance of rail services and performs railroad functions beyond intra-plant rail services. ITC also contracts with members of the public in order to connect those companies to the railroads such as the PTRA. At ITC’s Deer Park facility, railroad companies and associations, including the PTRA, deliver railcars to the facility. ITC employees, including Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client, transfer the railcars from the PTRA main line onto a lead that connects the main line to the Deer Park facility. As part of Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client’s job as a Railcar Switchman, he provided the coupling and uncoupling of railcars in order to transport them.

Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client brought this lawsuit to recover the legal debt due and owing to him as a result of the injuries he sustained. ITC negligently failed to provide safe, properly maintained, and fit equipment, including railcars, and work facilities for Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client’s use to carry out his job duties. As a result of ITC’s negligence, and because ITC failed to meet these basic obligations to Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client, Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client sustained very serious and permanent injuries. The acts and omissions of ITC constitute negligence. Such negligence was a proximate cause of Doyle Dennis Avery LLP’s client’s injuries.

Doyle Dennis Avery LLP has significant experience in representing locomotive workers. Our attorneys have extensive experience in the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (“FELA”) (45 U.S.C. § 51 et seq.), the Texas Railroad Liability Act (“TRLA”), and railroad industry standards for personal injuries. If you have been injured in the scope of your employment with a railroad company, call Doyle Dennis Avery LLP today for a free consultation.