SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A jury on Friday awarded $28.6 million to a man who lost his legs when hit by an Amtrak train while laying on railroad tracks in Marysville, Calif, in 2016, finding varying degrees of negligence by Amtrak, a hospital, and a doctor who released him before the accident, as well as the man himself.
The Sacramento Bee reports the amount 34-year-old Joseph Nevis will receive as a result of the Christmas Eve incident remains to be determined because of calculations including medical malpractice limits and varying findings on responsibility, but he is expected to receive millions of dollars.
The trial that began earlier this month was over events that began when Yuba City, Calif., police found Nevis on a sidewalk, determined he was too drunk to take to jail, and instead took him to Rideout Memorial Hospital in Marysville [see “Man seeks $32 million from Amtrak, hospital, doctor …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 7, 2022].
There, Dr. Hector Lopez determined he was medically stable and could be released. About an hour after Nevis left without his discharge papers, he ended up on the nearby railroad tracks, where his legs were amputated by the Coast Starlight, which continued on, its crew unaware what had happened.
The jurors found Lopez and Rideout were each 30% negligent, that Amtrak was 5% negligent, and that Nevis was 35% responsible, which means that percentage, or approximately $10 million, may be deducted from the verdict. U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd held off on entering specific damage amounts on the court record until lawyers can study the verdict and try to agree on the proper total.
Lawyers for the defendants declined comment.
This guy doesn’t deserve a dime and neither do the attorneys that took the case. And Amtrak has no responseability. Jury was crazy!
Could make a case that this guy is an alcoholic which is a disease. Too drunk for jail could be police didn’t want to chance the guy dying there. Doctor could be negligent in diagnosis, maybe the guy should have been restrained. People sometimes have to be protected from themselves. At any rate bad outcome for everyone involved.
And the bar or business that sold the drunk his drink is NOT responsible?
The drunk probably doesn’t know which one. There is a case in South Carolina where a dead girl’s family is suing the liquor store which sold alcohol to the teen responsible (drunk, he ran a powerboat into a bridge at night) ; the kid used his brother’s ID. Damages sought would bankrupt the store chain. It’s part of a series of killings (the murders were deliberate) in South Carolina by a lawyer from a very prominent family (don’t remember his name).
It’s called “Dram Shop” law…
This is exactly why other countries in the world think the American legal system is “nuts”. Its also why foreign businesses insist that US law not be listed as the governing law in any of their contracts.
Well it is California.
Bingo!
As they stay, what starts in California spreads to 53 other states. (Biden has said we have 54 states; Obama said 57.)
I have heard it said that Alabama, which is overall Republican/ conservative, is one of the best states to file an outrageous tort claim.
Years ago there was a case where someone totally drunk was operating his lawnmower and managed to get badly injured. The jury found the lawnmower company was responsible.
California law allots responsibility in accidents. So someone can be 95 % resposnsible but he can still sue a company and get millions (5 %) from another party (Amtrak in this case).
The only one responsible for Joseph Nevis loosing his legs is Joseph Nevis. He is the one who chose to drink to excess, he is the one who left the hospital without authorization and he is the one who laid down on the tracks. I’m sorry, but awarding him anything is miscarriage of justice!
I totally agree with all of the above, plus how can Amtrak be held even 5% accountable when the train is traveling at probably 79 MPH authorized speed in most areas and the train continued on not realizing they hit someone. The crew as I understand acknowledged that they did not realize they hit someone?
Only one person is responsible for this, and that is Mr Nevis. When are we going to hold people responsible for their actions? It is always someone else’s fault, and we have “lawyers” all to willing to enrich themselves helping these people. No wonder this country is becoming a 3rd world country. Grow the f up and start being responsible for your actions and consequences.
Becoming? You’re just now noticing? It’s been one for decades. Since the 1960’s…
How can you be “too drunk to be put in jail”? Yuba City must have a drunk tank.
Not Amtrak fault, private property
Its the Dr. and Hospital responsibility. Of course its in California
Hospitals don’t assign rooms to drunks so they can sleep it off. If he was medically stable the police should have taken him to the local drunk tank and locked him up for the night. All that was required of the hospital was to establish that Mr. Nevis was not in danger of dying from alcohol poisoning. He should then have been released to the custody of the police, charged with public intoxication. and taken to jail. Why didn’t that happen? The article doesn’t state whether or not he was officially released. I’m sure this happens often enough that there must be an established protocol to deal with potential alcohol poisoning cases. Perhaps the police had been notified that he was ready to be picked up and Nevis just walked out before they arrived. If that’s the case he is entitled to zip, zero, nada.
I agree with lots of you. How could Amtrak have any responsibility at all?? I’d love an explanation.
Anyone note he left the hospital without his discharge papers? Tells me he left before being properly processed out. He alone is responsible for what happened. No one else. Unless someone restrained him, poured liquor down his throat he alone made the decision to get extremely drunk. And it is possible to run someone over with a train and not know you’ve run over a human being. People are always putting things on the tracks and visibility ahead is not the greatest from a moving train. Lots of shadows. Lots of things go bump in the night. I once ran over someone late at night and didn’t know it until my road foreman called me that afternoon. The man was dressed in all black. Neither I nor my student engineer ever saw him.
I agree with Mr Vinson. If anyone is responsible it’s the Dr an Hospital. Him falling asleep on the tracks has nothing to do with Antrak.
Still, the responsibility rests only with Mr Nevis, Dr Lopez and Rideour Memorial Hospital. Mr Nevis chose to drink to excess; and Dr Lopez and Rideour Memorial failed to assign a bed to Mr Nevis.
Amtrak is not culpable for Mr Nevis’ actions and Dr Lopez’s negligence.
Anyone else find it sickening that some lawyer gets this guy millions for being drunk? Used to be “you made your bed, now lie in it”, to “you can be set for life”. Shame his own actions cost him his legs, but maybe if he had exercised some common sense he’d still have them?
I was going the post the word “sickening” but you beat me to it.
This man doesn’t deserve a dime from anybody. If anything he should be sued for any delays to train traffic.
Maybe if the officer that determined he was to drunk to take to jail had just left him on the sidewalk none of this would’ve happened. He obviously wasn’t hurting anyone there…so just leave him be.