Former railroad worker awarded $12.5 million verdict

HILLSBORO, Mo. -- A Jackson man was awarded a $12.5 million judgment earlier this week by a 12-member jury in a lawsuit filed against his former railroad company, BNSF.

Michael Bolen, 51, was involved in a mishap that cost him his right leg below the knee.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the Jefferson County jury on Tuesday unanimously sided with Bolen. His attorney, Nelson G. Wolff of the St. Louis law firm Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, said the verdict came after a seven-day trial.

Bolen sustained the injury in May 2012 when he says he tripped over a boulder in a BNSF railway yard in Crystal City, Mo., while directing trains and fell onto the tracks. That's where a slow-moving train ran over both of his legs. Wolff said the train was probably going 9 mph and he believes there were eight rail cars weighing about 30 tons each, plus a locomotive weighing 200 tons.

Tom Jones, an attorney for BNSF did not return phone calls Thursday.

"We thought it [the settlement] was fair and reasonable under the circumstances given the significant nature of the injury the disability and the disfigurement," Wolff said Thursday.

BNSF spokesman Andy Williams said while it sympathizes with Bolen's injury, the company questions Bolen's version and doesn't believe its workplace or

equipment contributed to what happened, according to an Associated Press story.

Williams didn't reveal whether the company plans to appeal.

Asked how long it might take before Bolen sees the award, Wolff said that depends on "how long the railroad chooses to fight it. I expect that they'll file an appeal, which they have a right to do, regardless of having any merit so that could be another year or two."

Wolff said Bolen was with the railroad "just over eight years," mainly in the River Subdivision, which extends from St. Louis to Chaffee, Mo. Bolen, a conductor who often had responsibilities for helping in railroad switching operations and working with a locomotive engineer, Wolff said his client also had worked in Blytheville, Ark., and in Iowa.

Wolff said Bolen served in the U.S. Marines after high school and was honorably discharged. Bolen also worked for the city of Jackson and Jackson schools. He now works at a carwash.

Wolff said Bolen had "enough of the spotlight" during the trial, but hopes the verdict "sends a message to the railroad that they clean up their walking areas along the tracks so this doesn't happen to anyone else."