The families
of four young people won a verdict against BNSF Railway Company on March
28. Four young people were killed when their car collided with one of the company's trains. The families claim BNSF negligently maintained the warning signals at the crossing and had failed to comply with several maintenance and signal regulations.
The lawsuit recently was heard by the Supreme Court, which upheld that the district court's instructions to the jury to apply common-law or "reasonable person" standard of care as fair. Only after the jury's verdict did the defendant's attorneys request a new trial on several grounds, including that the plaintiffs had to prove the railroad company failed to comply with a different standard of care than the reasonable person standard. However, the Supreme Court denied the new trial motion.
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