Fired BNSF Worker Gets $2.3 Million in Safety Retaliation Case

BNSF Railway Co. must pay a track inspector who a jury found was terminated in retaliation for opposing safety issues nearly $1.2 million in damages and more than $1.1 million in attorneys’ fees and costs.

Don Sanders’ damages award was reduced from the more than $9.4 million the jury awarded him, the US District Court for the District of Minnesota said. Of that amount, $8.6 million was for punitive damages, but the Federal Railroad Safety Act caps punitive damages at $250,000, the court said, noting that it had previously reduced that award.

Sanders can keep the $611,797 in back pay ...