Provides that intercity rail passenger services and commuter rail services shall be liable for medical costs for injuries to railroad employees caused by passengers, customers or members of the public.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7882
IN SENATE
February 28, 2020
___________
Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the railroad law, in relation to providing that inter-
city rail passenger services and commuter rail services shall be
liable for medical costs for injuries to railroad employees caused by
passengers, customers or members of the public
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 64 of the railroad law is amended to read as
2 follows:
3 § 64. Injuries to employees. 1. In all actions against a railroad
4 corporation, foreign or domestic, doing business in this state, or
5 against a receiver thereof, for personal injury to, or death resulting
6 from personal injury of any person, while in the employment of such
7 corporation, or receiver, arising from the negligence of such corpo-
8 ration or receiver or of any of its or his officers or employees, every
9 employee, or his legal representatives, shall have the same rights and
10 remedies for an injury, or for death, suffered by him, from the act or
11 omission of such corporation or receiver or of its or his officers or
12 employees, as are now allowed by law, and, in addition to the liability
13 now existing by law, it shall be held in such actions that persons
14 engaged in the service of any railroad corporation, foreign or domestic,
15 doing business in this state, or in the service of a receiver thereof,
16 who are intrusted by such corporation or receiver, with the authority of
17 superintendence, control or command of other persons in the employment
18 of such corporation or receiver, or with the authority to direct or
19 control any other employee in the performance of the duty of such
20 employee, or who have, as a part of their duty, for the time being,
21 physical control or direction of the movement of a signal, switch, loco-
22 motive engine, car, train or telegraph office, are vice-principals of
23 such corporation or receiver, and are not fellow-servants of such
24 injured or deceased employee.
25 2. If an employee, engaged in the service of any such railroad corpo-
26 ration, or of a receiver thereof, shall receive any injury by reason of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15141-01-0
S. 7882 2
1 any defect in the condition of the ways, works, machinery, plant, tools
2 or implements, or of any car, train, locomotive or attachment thereto
3 belonging, owned or operated, or being run and operated by such corpo-
4 ration or receiver, when such defect could have been discovered by such
5 corporation or receiver, by reasonable and proper care, tests or
6 inspection, such corporation or receiver shall be deemed to have had
7 knowledge of such defect before and at the time such injury is
8 sustained; and when the fact of such defect shall be proved upon the
9 trial of any action in the courts of this state, brought by such employ-
10 ee or his legal representatives, against any such railroad corporation
11 or receiver, on account of such injuries so received, the same shall be
12 prima facie evidence of negligence on the part of such corporation or
13 receiver. [This section shall not affect actions or causes of action
14 existing on May twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and six; and no]
15 3. If any employee, engaged in the service of any intercity rail
16 passenger service, as defined by section ninety-seven of this article,
17 or of a commuter rail service, as defined by section ninety-seven-a of
18 this article, shall suffer a physical injury that is caused by a passen-
19 ger, customer or member of the public while the employee is performing
20 an assigned duty, pursuant to subdivision eleven of section 120.05 of
21 the penal law or otherwise, the intercity rail passenger service or
22 commuter rail service shall be held liable for any medical costs attrib-
23 utable to such injury and, in cases where it is determined by his or her
24 medical provider that such injured employee is unable to perform his or
25 her assigned duties due to such injury, such employee shall be compen-
26 sated by the intercity rail passenger service or commuter rail service
27 at an amount not less than the employee would have earned on the assign-
28 ment they would have worked until such time that such employee is desig-
29 nated able to return to work by his or her medical provider.
30 4. No contract, receipt, rule or regulation, between an employee and a
31 railroad corporation or receiver, shall exempt or limit the liability of
32 such corporation or receiver from the provisions of this section, howev-
33 er a collective bargaining agreement may alternatively bargain for bene-
34 fits greater than those provided by this section.
35 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
