Opinion ID: 659102
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Companion rider claim.

Text: 14 Gibbons first alleges that CSX negligently caused his injuries by sending him to deliver supplies over 80 miles from the Dearborn yard, without a companion driver. The district court found that the assault was not reasonably foreseeable, thus barring the plaintiff's action under the FELA. 15 In Green, 763 F.2d at 808, we held that foreseeability is not dependent upon the employer envisioning the exact injury which the plaintiff sustains. Rather, the employer must only anticipate that some injury was possible. Id. However, with respect to assaults by third parties a stricter standard has been adopted. Courts have determined that an employer should [not] be held liable for an unforeseeable assault by a third person, when not provided with any notice or knowledge of the likelihood of such attack, and [where] the working area was not conducive to any unusual risk of assault. Herold v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 342 F.Supp. 862, 864 (D.Minn.1972). A railroad has no liability for an assault by one employee upon another in the absence of notice of the assaulter's 'vicious propensities' or where the working area is 'not conducive to any unusual risk of assault.'  Green, 763 F.2d at 808-09. 16 Gibbons asserts that the affidavits of three individuals (Richard Tackett, a CSX employee and Plaintiff's union leader, James LaClear, Chief of Police for the City of Williamston, and Michael Donohue, Plaintiff's supervisor), support the proposition that the assault was foreseeable. This argument is without merit. 17 At most, the referenced testimony indicates that potential danger existed when working alone due to the strenuous physical nature of the job. Further, testimony regarding criminal activity in the area surrounding the Corwin Road crossing indicated no more than that property crimes had previously occurred in the area. This evidence was insufficient to satisfy the standard we adopted in Green. Absent evidence that the Corwin Road area was conducive to an unusual risk of assault, and that CSX had notice or knowledge of the likelihood of such attack, Plaintiff has failed to satisfy his burden. Thus, summary judgment was properly granted to the defendant on the companion rider claim, due to Gibbons' inability to prove the foreseeability of his injuries. 18