Multiple Illinois Central RR Employees File New Suit

April 25 , 2006 - In Memphis, four dozen past and present employees of the Illinois Central Railroad (ICR) have filed a series of lawsuits against the company, each seeking up to three-quarters-of-a-million dollars and alleging unlawful exposure to asbestos while on the job.  According to an attorney, all the employees were or are employed at one of ICR’s two railroad yards in South Memphis. 

The workers were employed in a number of different positions with the company and attorneys note that their health challenges vary as well, though it is known that several of the plaintiffs have already been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs for which the only known cause is asbestos exposure.  Because of the diversity of the cases and the extent of the alleged exposure, these lawsuits are not part of a class action suit. 

Lawyers and doctors for the plaintiffs are currently researching the medical histories of their clients as well as employment records, determining where each spent most of his time and how their particular jobs may have been linked to inhalation of asbestos fibers.

Some of the four dozen employees worked mainly at the railroad station during their tenure with Illinois Central while others who are part of the lawsuit spent most of their working career on or around the tracks or on the engines. 

"And depending on what their job was, they would have been exposed to different quantities of asbestos," said local Memphis attorney Christopher Gilreath of Gilreath and Associates, who’s handling most of the cases. "It was in a lot of things: the brake shoes that the railroads use to brake and slow the trains down, and it was in the buildings."

The Illinois Central Railroad, purchased by the Canadian National Railway in 1998, had no comment on the lawsuits but did acknowledge that multiple lawsuits filed against the company are pending in Memphis area courts.

Gilreath notes that the window of time involved in fighting asbestos exposure is of major concern.  As diseases like mesothelioma are often not diagnosed until a victim reaches Stage 4 cancer, death can be quick and victims often don’t live to see the outcome of their lawsuits.

"What happens with asbestos fibers is they kind of come loose from material, and it's kind of like insulation, where you can see little wisps of things floating in the air," Gilreath said. "They're there, they get small, and you inhale them. They get into your lungs and they don't go away.

"For people who are exposed to it on a regular basis, it builds up, and it's almost like having a little piece of glass in your lungs. And it builds up enough to where your body starts trying to reject it, and it can turn into cancer."