BNSF first buffeted by sanctions, then bought by Buffet
Nov 3rd, 2009 by Mark Cohen
We recently ran a story about a defendant whose misconduct in defending a railroad death case was found to be so bad that state District Court Judge Ellen Maas assessed more than $4 million in sanctions against the company. The underlying litigation had involved four young adults killed at an Anoka railroad crossing when a train slammed into their vehicle. Despite the railroad’s tactics in obstructing the plaintiffs’ case and in losing or destroying evidence pertaining to an allegedly faulty signal, the families prevailed, obtaining a $25 million verdict against the railroad.
The defendant in that litigation was Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., which, it was just announced, is being procured by Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet’s company) for a cool $34 billion. (Yes. that’s billion with a “b,” as in “Buffet’s got big bucks.”) One hopes that the Oracle of Omaha will take a hard line against the kind of shenanigans that happened in the BNSF litigation and, pardon the expression, help get the company back on track.
