Warshauer Law Group is pleased to announce the promotion of associate Darl H. Champion, Jr. to partner. He has been with the firm since March 2010 and his practice focuses on representing plaintiffs in catastrophic injury and death cases.

Mr. Champion attended Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law, where he was a Managing Editor of the Mercer Law Review, a member of the Moot Court Board, an inductee into the Brainerd Currie Honor Society, and a recipient of the Faculty Award for Outstanding Senior. After receiving his Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, he worked for two years as law clerk for the Honorable Hugh Lawson, United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. In each of the last two years, Georgia Super Lawyers magazine has recognized him as a Rising Star in the area of plaintiff personal injury litigation.

On June 16, 2010, a train operated by Norfolk Southern Railway Company collided with a tractor-trailer in Clayton County. Winford Hartry, who was the engineer of the train, was injured as a result of the collision. Norfolk Southern contracted with Science Applications International Corporation, Inc., to co-develop locomotive dash-cam software known as ''RaiIView''. The RailView device records digital images of the train's movement, as well as data about the train's speed, direction, hom activity, and braking activity. This RailView device captured images and data when Mr. Hartry's incident took place.

Although the relevance of this data to the case was undisputed by both parties, Norfolk Southern would only agree to provide a copy of the data disk to the Hartrys under certain conditions, and Norfolk Southern advised the Hartrys that they would only be able to view the information on the RailView data disk they purchased the proper Railview software for $500 per year.

The Hartrys filed a motion to compel discovery, which was followed by a motion for protective order on behalf of Norfolk Southern. When the motion to compel was granted, Norfolk Southern appealed the trial court’s order to the Georgia appellate courts.

In a well-written opinion by now-Justice Keith Blackwell, the Court of Appeals held,

We cannot say that the court below clearly abused its discretion in making such a determination, especially given the crucial nature of the evidence, the relatively minor cost of the license when compared to the amount at stake in the lawsuit, and the fact that it was Norfolk Southern’s decision to equip its locomotive with a licensed device for recording data so that it would only be able to provide that data to third parties upon payment of a license fee.

Norfolk Southern v. Hartry, -- S.E.2d --, (Docket No. A12A0649) (June 29, 2012). 

We are pleased with the Georgia Court of Appeals’ decision and congratulate attorneys Doug Dumont and Darl Champion for their hard work on behalf of the Hartry family. Unless the railroad is successful in its petition for certiorari, Norfolk Southern will be responsible for either providing a computer equipped with the proper Railview software to view the data disk, or by any other methods the parties may agree to. 

On Thursday April 19, 2012 a United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia jury returned a $20,559,004.00 verdict to compensate our client for the loss of both legs caused by a runaway railroad car.  The rail car was delivered to the General Mills cereal factory in Covington, Georgia by CSX Transportation.  It rolled away from where it had been parked and hit two other cars that the plaintiff was working with.   All three rail cars rolled over the plaintiff.  The runaway car rolled away because its handbrake failed to hold it in place.   Defendant CSX blamed the plaintiff for failing to apply the handbrake.  Through extensive investigation and analysis of the evidence and of how handbrakes operate, we were able to prove that the plaintiff, who had no memory of the event because of his extensive injuries, applied the handbrake properly.  The verdict will protect our client's future and hopefully encourage CSX to adopt better policies relating to handbrake inspection and maintenance.

IT APPEARS THIS CLAIM IS RELATED TO AN ON-DUTY INJURY.  PLEASE FORWARD THIS CLAIM TO NORFOLK SOUTHERN CASUALTY DEPT. THREE COMMERCIAL PLACE, NORFOLK, VA 23510 FOR FURTHER CLAIM REVIEW