BENTON – Senior U.S. District Judge Phil Gilbert rejected Madison County jurisdiction over a fatal accident at US Steel in Granite City.
On July 21, he found plaintiff Tyler Dagon asserted empty claims against US Steel and BNSF Railway in a bid to prevent federal jurisdiction.
He dismissed those claims and denied a motion to send remaining claims to Madison County where the suit started.
Dagon filed suit last year as the only child of Timothy Dagon, who fell under a BNSF car that severed his leg so violently that he died.
Attorney Roy Dripps of Maryville sought damages for Dagon under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, which prohibits removal of railroad injury suits from state courts.
He also sought damages for negligence under common law.
Defendants removed the suit to district court, asserting diversity jurisdiction.
US Steel is a Pennsylvania citizen, and BNSF is a Texas citizen.
They claimed Dagon fraudulently joined claims under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act with common law claims.
They claimed the Act didn’t apply because US Steel wasn’t a common carrier and BNSF wasn’t Dagon’s employer.
Dripps moved to remand the suit to Madison County, claiming US Steel was a common carrier because it owned a common carrier by name of TranStar.
He claimed BNSF was Dagon’s employer because it had a right to control US Steel’s activities.
Gilbert deferred a ruling this January, and gave the parties 30 days for discovery.
He set a hearing March 24, but the virus canceled it. He held it in June by video and denied the motion a month later.
“Unlike fraudulent joinder of parties, assertion of fraudulent joinder of claims are few,” Gilbert wrote.
He applied jurisprudence of fraudulent joinder of parties and found no reasonable possibility that a state court would rule against US Steel or BNSF under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.
He wrote that federal courts are without power to entertain claims otherwise within their jurisdiction if they are so attenuated as to be absolutely devoid of merit, wholly insubstantial, obviously frivolous, or no longer open to discussion.
“Courts have long recognized that in plant rail facilities are not common carriers, even where those facilities are quite extensive,” he wrote.
“US Steel is not a common carrier just because it owns TranStar, an entity with no real connection to this dispute.”
He found TranStar is based in Pittsburgh and has no presence in Granite City.
He found BNSF provided no equipment or training, and US Steel employees loaded and unloaded the cars.
He found no BNSF employees were present at the plant, nor did BNSF have any input or control on how Dagon did his job.
He wrote that holding BNSF liable under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act “could undermine basic assumptions in the contractual relationship and dissuade other railroads from hauling US Steel’s goods.”
Charles Armbruster and Michael Blotevogel, in the same firm as Dripps, also represent Dagon.
Bharat Varadachari of St. Louis and Meghan Kane of Belleville represent US Steel.
Jeffrey Scolaro, Tyler Roland, and Sean Sullivan, all of Chicago, represent BNSF.