Speaking of oddball lawsuits and legal decisions, an Illinois state appeals court has overturned a ruling by a Cook County court judge that damages are not recoverable for injuries sustained from being struck by a dismembered corpse.
The lawsuit was brought by Gayane Zokhrabov, 58, who suffered a broken wrist in 2008 when she was hit by airborne body parts of a young man killed by a speeding commuter train. The man, Hiroyuki Joho, 18, attempted to make it across the tracks as an Amtrak train bore down on him at 70 miles per hour. He failed, spectacularly.
Not only did he die on impact but in so dramatic a fashion that his body split apart. One large piece flew 100 feet and struck Zokhrabov as she stood on the southbound platform of a nearby station. She sued both the estate of the dead teen for pain and suffering and two railway companies, Metra and Canadian Pacific, accusing them of negligence.
The judge who heard her case ruled that railway companies have no responsibility for warning pedestrians about an “open and obvious danger” such as a moving train. The decision was upheld on appeal.
But the second part of his ruling—his dismissal of Zokhrabov’s claim on the grounds that Joho’s death was an accident—was tossed out by the higher court, which found that “it was reasonably foreseeable” that crossing the tracks in the path of an oncoming train could present a risk to those in the immediate environment.
Zokhrabov’s attorney, Leslie Rosen, argued that Joho’s actions constituted a straightforward case of negligence, albeit with “very peculiar and gory and creepy” overtones. Rosen added, If you do something as stupid as this guy did, you have to be responsible for what comes from it.”
