The Jossart Law Office had a great 2019 in the Minnesota Appellate Courts with three huge wins.
The largest was the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirming Jossart’s $21.1 judgment against the BNSF in Kowalewski v. BNSF. In that case Jossart established that Kowalewski, a BNSF employee, was hurt when hazardous materials escaped tank car(s) as a result of BNSF’s negligence. Jossart received a $15.3 million verdict against the BNSF by a jury and the judge added nearly $6 million in sanctions against the railroad for its discovery abuses. Although the BNSF asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to reconsider, that court denied BNSF’s attempt to skirt its responsibility.
Jossart was also successful in the Carlson v. BNSF matter in the Minnesota Court of Appeals. In that case, Jossart successfully received a verdict in excess of $500,000 against the BNSF for Carlson who was injured by a defective toilet filled with chemicals on a locomotive. Although he was still working at the time of the verdict, the jury awarded just over $200,000 in future wage loss because of the permanency of his injuries. After the verdict, the trial judge took away the future wages, but the Minnesota Court of Appeals reinstated those wages and Carlson received the full verdict amount.
Most recently, Jossart won at the Minnesota Supreme Court in Alby v. BNSF where the court determined that the state’s 10 percent interest rate (not the federal interest rate of roughly 1 percent) applied to Jossart’s judgment she received against the BNSF when she won a $1.8 million verdict against the BNSF for Alby’s cumulative trauma injuries caused by rough-riding locomotives. In that case, the trial judge, about one year after the verdict, took the verdict away and Jossart appealed the decision to the Minnesota Court of Appeals who determined the trial judge was wrong and reinstated the judgment amount. The case was then heard by the Minnesota Supreme Court on the issue of interest only and Jossart was successful with that matter as well.