Does Does FELA Cover Occupational Illnesses Caused by Hazardous Working Conditions?

The Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA) is a federal law that provides protection and compensation for railroad workers who are harmed or become ill due to the negligence of their employer or co-workers. While FELA is often associated with injuries resulting from accidents, it also extends to occupational diseases and illnesses arising from the railroad industry’s working conditions.

The following is an overview of how FELA covers diseases and illnesses related to railroad work. For more detailed information about your specific circumstances, call our office to speak with a FELA attorney.

Occupational Diseases and Illnesses

FELA recognizes that working in the railroad industry can expose employees to various hazardous conditions and substances that may lead to the development of occupational diseases or illnesses. These can include conditions such as asbestosis, mesothelioma (cancer of the lining of the lung caused only by asbestos exposure), lung cancer and lung diseases, hearing loss due to engine blasts, and chemical exposure-related illnesses, among others.

Spending years breathing in exhaust from diesel-powered locomotives is especially dangerous. A study published in 2011 revealed that train crew members and individuals who work around idling diesel engines are 30 percent more likely to develop lung cancer than people who do not have this occupational illness disease risk. The increase in diagnoses of cancer following long-term diesel exposure cannot be explained by smoking or other factors. Our firm has represented railroad workers of every nature and craft. We have successfully represented workers who contracted an occupational disease years after their healthy retirement, only to get a horrible diagnosis of occupational cancer years later.

Pursuing a FELA Claim

To pursue a FELA claim for an occupational disease or illness, you must establish that your employer’s negligence played a significant role in causing your condition. This negligence can take various forms, including inadequate safety measures, failure to provide protective equipment, lack of training, or improper handling of hazardous materials.

It’s essential to consult with an attorney who has extensive experience handling FELA cases if you believe you’ve contracted a disease or illness due to your work in the railroad industry. This is a very complex area of law with different legal processes than workers’ compensation or personal injury cases.

Statute of Limitations

Just like FELA cases involving injuries, claims related to occupational diseases or illnesses are also subject to specific statutes of limitations.

Occupational diseases often appear long after exposure, so whether the statute of limitations has expired is usually a consideration that needs to be carefully assessed. FELA has a three-year statute of limitations, which means a case needs to be settled or filed in a proper court before that three-year period expires, but it is often a complex legal question as to when the three-year statute begins to “run” or “accrue” that requires a skilled FELA lawyer to assess and determine.

Courts have held that the three-year period under the FELA statute of limitations begins when workers know or should know they suffer from an occupational disease connected with their railroad job. Some courts have considered whether the mere suspicion that your problem may be connected with railroad work starts the three years running, and most courts have held that it does not.

It’s not suspicion that counts: it’s when a doctor tells the worker their disease is connected or when a worker knew or should have known that the disease they contracted was likely caused by occupational work. In some cases, it can be triggered by the railroad employer notifying a worker that they may have a potential claim. Some railroads did this purposefully to start the three-year statute of limitations running even in cases where the worker was not definitely diagnosed with an occupational disease.

The court will review what an employee knew about his or her exposure to potentially toxic substances and when symptoms began to develop to assess when an employee should have realized their disease was probably due to exposure on the railroad. In some rare cases, the period may begin to run before a doctor tells an employee that their disease is due to their railroad work.

Given the complexities of the FELA statute of limitations, it’s crucial to consult with a FELA attorney promptly to ensure that you meet all deadlines for filing your claim.

Call Our FELA Law Firm for Legal Assistance

Our law firm has represented hundreds of railroad workers since the 1980s, handling their FELA claims throughout the eastern United States. One of our firm’s attorneys co-wrote the treatise Railroad Health & Safety: A Litigator’s Guide, which is found in most of the nation’s law libraries.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an illness caused by exposure to hazards due to railroad employment, contact Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp to schedule a free and confidential case evaluation. Our FELA attorneys are dedicated to getting our clients and their families the financial compensation they deserve, like the $5 million wrongful death award we obtained for one client who died from asbestosis after spending 27 years working in Norfolk Southern’s car repair shop.

 

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