UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

For the Fifth Circuit

No. 98-60094

Summary Calendar

SHIRLEY STUCKEY, As Mother and Natural Guardian

of Tonya Wilkins and as Personal Representative of

the Wrongful Death Beneficiaries of Charlie Jones,

Deceased, ET AL.,

Plaintiffs,

SHIRLEY STUCKEY, As Mother and Natural Guardian

of Tonya Wilkins and as Personal Representative of

the Wrongful Death Beneficiaries of Charlie Jones,

Deceased; T. H. SCIPPER, As the Administrator of

the Estate of Bobby Gates, Deceased,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

VERSUS

ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD; NATIONAL RAILROAD

PASSENGER CORPORATION "AMTRAK",

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court

For the Northern District of Mississippi

(2:96-CV-47-B-B)

October 22, 1998
 

*Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that

this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except

under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4.

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Before EMILIO M. GARZA, DeMOSS, and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

On February 3, 1996 at approximately 12:45 p.m. a southbound

Amtrak train operating on Illinois Central Railroad tracks struck

a vehicle being driven by Bobby Gates which contained a passenger,

Charlie Jones, at a crossing in Quitman County, Mississippi. Both

Jones and Gates died at the scene as a result of the collision. On

the date of the accident, the weather was clear and sunny but it

was bitterly cold and there was two to three inches of ice and snow

on the road. The railroad crossing was located in a rural area and

was marked with both a crossbuck and a stop sign. The tracks were

elevated. Just prior to the collision, the vehicle in which the

decedents were riding was traveling southbound, on a road that ran

parallel to the tracks. The train was likewise traveling

southbound. To cross the tracks, the decedents’ vehicle had to

make an approximately 90 degree turn toward the west. After

turning west, there is a short incline leading up to the crossing.

Shirley Stuckey, as the personal representative of the wrongful

death beneficiaries of Charlie Jones, filed suit in the state court

against the Illinois Central Railroad Company and the National

Railroad Passenger Corporation ("Amtrak") (hereinafter the

"railroad defendants") and against the administrator of the estate

of Bobby Gates, the deceased driver. The railroad defendants

removed the case from the state district court to the United States
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District Court of Mississippi, Delta Division. Stuckey timely

filed a motion to remand which the district court denied. The

railroad defendants then filed a motion for summary judgment

alleging that there were no material issues of genuine fact and

that the defendants were entitled to summary judgment. The federal

district court granted the railroad defendants’ motion for summary

judgment and Stuckey perfected this appeal.

We have carefully reviewed the briefs, the reply brief, the

record excerpts and relevant portions of the record itself. For

the reasons stated by the district court in its Memorandum Opinion

filed under date of June 5, 1996, we are satisfied that the

district court did not err in denying Stuckey’s motion to remand.

For the reasons stated by the district court in its Memorandum

Opinion filed under date of February 10, 1998, we are satisfied

that the district court did not err in granting the railroad

defendants’ motion for summary judgment. Accordingly, the Final

Judgment entered by the district court on February 10, 1998 is 

AFFIRMED.