A Circuit court awarded $1.7 million to a 25-year old yard brakeman, who injured his back while employed by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co. in Logan, W. VA. Wondel Lee Wiley accused the company of negligence, saying his supervisors ordered him to lift an 80-pound steel knuckle, which caused him to rupture a disc.
Wiley underwent back surgery in April 1985. As a result of his injury, Wiley could no longer lift more than 20 pounds and was unable to do work requiring bending, stooping or climbing. Lead counsel in the trial of the case was Byron P. Kloeppel of the Law Firm of Moody, Strople & Kloeppel, Ltd.