$625,000 FELA Verdict Restored by U.S. Supreme Court After Railroad's 'Bug-Bite' Defense

On August 10, 1954, James Gallick was working as a spotting crew foreman for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near a stretch of track in Cleveland, Ohio. At a low-lying area on railroad property, a pool of stagnant water had collected. Dead rats and pigeons contaminated the pool, which drew insects to the site. Gallick was bitten by an insect while working nearby.

What followed was a medical catastrophe. The bite became infected and the infection spread, eventually becoming so severe that both of Gallick's legs required amputation. He sued the railroad under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA), which holds railroads liable for negligence that plays any part in an employee's injury.

The case went to trial in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The jury returned a special verdict, finding that Gallick was bitten by an insect, that the railroad knew the stagnant pool would attract vermin, that the railroad was negligent in allowing that condition to persist, and that the bite caused his injuries. The jury awarded $625,000 in damages.

The railroad appealed, and the Ohio Court of Appeals reversed the verdict, ruling that the evidence of causation was insufficient. Ohio's Supreme Court declined to hear the case, leaving the appellate reversal in place. Marshall Nurenberg, who had tried the case and obtained the original jury verdict, refused to let the result stand. He petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court took the case and, on February 18, 1963, reversed the Ohio appellate court in a decision authored by Justice White. The Court held that the appellate court had improperly substituted its own judgment for that of the jury, invading the fact-finding function that FELA reserves to juries. Under FELA's 'play any part' causation standard, the evidence Nurenberg presented at trial was legally sufficient. The $625,000 jury verdict was reinstated.

The case, widely referred to in legal circles as the 'bug-bite case,' became a significant precedent on the scope of jury fact-finding in FELA litigation. Nurenberg, who was recognized as a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in 1975 and later described by colleagues as one of the greatest trial lawyers in Ohio, went on to lend his name to the firm now known as Nurenberg Paris Heller and McCarthy.