Plaintiff, a railroad worker, brought this action under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), 45 USCA § 51, for injuries sustained as the result of defendant’s alleged violation of the Automatic Coupler Act, 45 USCA § 2, a section of the Safety Appliance Act, 45 USCA §§ l-43a. Defendant appeals from a judgment entered on a jury verdict for plaintiff in the amount of $l,025,645.20-$862,382 in special damages and $163,363.20 in general damages.
At the time of his accident, plaintiff had been working for defendant railroad for more than 20 years and was very skilled at his job. One of his work duties was the uncoupling of train cars. This is done by jogging alongside a slowly moving train and grabbing and pulling a device called a cutlever, which releases the pin holding the cars together. Evidence showed that on the morning of plaintiff’s accident, the cutlever did not release when plaintiff pulled it, even though the cars were moving at the proper speed and plaintiff exerted reasonable effort. The effect of the cutlever’s failure to release was to jerk plaintiff’s body, causing him some back pain, which he mentioned to his co-workers at lunch. Plaintiff did not think the pain was an indication of any real injury, however, and did not report the injury or the problem with the cutlever to management. Although plaintiff continued to work that day, he could hardly move the next morning. He went to the emergency room and was subsequently hospitalized. He tried traction and physical therapy, but eventually had to have surgery. Although plaintiff is better, he will never again be able to do railroad work, the only work he has done as an adult. He is capable of performing work which does not require lifting, bending or sitting for long periods of time, but his efforts to find such work have been unavailing. He continues to look, but he is in his mid-forties, has no college and no job skills, and now has a history of back problems which he must disclose on any job application.
1. Defendant first contends that the trial court’s jury instruction regarding what plaintiff had to show to establish a violation of the Automatic Coupler Act was erroneous. The court told the jury “the plaintiff must prove that the automatic coupler device did not work in the manner it was designed to operate when reasonable effort was made in the proper manner of operating it, or the plaintiff must prove that the automatic coupler device was defective.” Specifically, defend *529 ant asserts that the court should have used “and” rather than “or” to join the two clauses, and that its failure to do so required the jurors to find a violation of the Act if they believed the cutlever did not work on this one occasion, even if they concluded that the cutlever device in question was not actually defective.
The Automatic Coupler Act provides: “It shall be unlawful for any railroad to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars.” 45 USCA § 2. If a railroad’s coupling or uncoupling equipment does not meet the requirements of this Act and a worker is injured as a result, the railroad is automatically liable for damages.
O’Donnell v. Elgin, J. & E. R. Co.,
2. Defendant next argues that the trial court erred in granting plaintiffs motion in limine excluding evidence that plaintiff had been discharged by defendant for reasons other than his physical inability to work. As a result, defendant argues, the jury inflated their evaluation of plaintiff’s damages based on the assumption that plaintiff would have continued to work for the railroad had this accident not occurred. Contrary to defendant’s assertion, however, the trial court did not grant a motion in limine precluding such evidence. Instead, the trial court granted a motion in limine requiring defendant to approach the bench if and when it wished to introduce such evidence, and the matter would “be dealt with as it comes up.” Defendant never tried to introduce evidence of plaintiff’s discharge, so the matter was never decided by the trial court. In any case, defendant’s premise that the fact of discharge is relevant to lessen plaintiff’s damages is faulty. The record reveals that after plaintiff filed his claim against defendant, defendant took the position that plaintiff’s claim was without basis and fired him for filing it. Thus, the discharge clearly resulted from plaintiff’s accident and resulting back injury, even if it was not based on plaintiff’s physical inability to perform the job.
3. Defendant’s contention that a new trial is necessary because the jury’s verdict is grossly excessive is also without merit. In FELA cases, “ ‘[t]he jury’s determination of the amount of damages to be awarded is . . . inviolate, “absent an award so excessive or inadequate as to shock the judicial conscience and raise an irresistible inference that passion, prejudice or another improper cause invaded the trial.” ’ [Cit.]”
Southern R. Co. v. Minor,
4. Defendant next contends that the special damages verdict was improper because the verdict form indicated the special damages were “lost wages” and the figure awarded included the value of lost health and pension benefits as well as actual wages. As lost benefits are special damages which go along with lost wages as part of lost income, this enumeration of error is patently without merit.
5. Lastly, the trial court did not err in admitting the medical record from Dr. Roy as an exception to the hearsay rule pursuant to OCGA § 24-3-4.
Judgment affirmed.
Notes
As part of the 1987 Tort Reform Act, the Georgia Legislature provided in OCGA § 51-12-12 (a) that the trial court could interfere with the jury’s verdict if it is so excessive as to be inconsistent with the preponderance of the evidence in the case; an inference of gross mistake or undue bias is no longer necessary in cases based on state tort law.