Verdicts & Settlements

$540,000 Awarded in Steamtown Case, Federal judge supersedes jury in case of boys killed by train

U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo on Friday awarded $540,000 to the parents of two Scranton brothers killed by a Steamtown excursion train nearly four years ago. The ruling superseded an advisory jury's finding in January that the parents were not entitled to any damages because the youths were trespassers on the property where they were killed. The case centers on the deaths of Anthony and Paul Paskert. The boys, 16 and 12 years old, respectively, were knifed by a Steamtown excursion train as it traveled through Dunmore on July 9, 1995. They were trying to extricate their all-terrain vehicle from Its stuck position on the track when they were hit by the train. Tracks in the area of the accident are surrounded by dirt roads used for recreation by pedestrians and operators of ATVs, motorcycles, sport-utility vehicles and three-wheelers. The youths parents, Paul and Lynn Paskert of 64 Snook St., initially filed suit against a number of defendants, but by the time the case went to trial the lone remaining defendants were the Natiorial Park Service, which operated the excursion train from the Steamtown National Historic Site, and Delaware & Lackawanna Railroad, which owned the tracks on which the train traveled. The verdict of the jury that listened to the entire trial became advisory when Judge Caputo dismissed D&L as a defendant, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to show any connection between the railroad and the deaths of the two boys. That left the National Park Service, a federal government entity, as the lone defendant. Federal statutes provide that judges must issue verdicts in cases against the federal government. In finding that the Paskert's were not entitled to damages, the advisory jury found that Steamtown did not know and had no reason to know the area where the accident happened was used frequently by the public. In his ruling, Judge Caputo found that the area in which the accident occurred was a permissive crossing. That said, the judge wrote in his ruling, the conclusion is that the defendant therefore owed the Paskert boys the duty to exercise ordinary care under the circumstances. The Paskert boys were no longer, in the eyes of the law, trespassers but rather permitted crossers who had an implied license to pass over the tracks. Later in his ruling, Judge Caputo said that because the area was a permissive crossing, the defendant was obligated to treat it as a crossing and to take the precautions normally taken at crossings." The judge nevertheless found the boys were 40 percent responsible for their deaths. In making the ruling, he noted that they failed to keep a constant lookout once their ATV was hung upon the rail.

In addition, he wrote, the circumstances that existed when they attempted to cross on that fateful day were not conducive to crossing.

This finding reduced the Paskert's overall award.

The judge, for example, found that Mr. and Mrs. Paskert were entitled to $400,000 based on an estimate of loss of earnings for their son, Anthony, minus personal maintenance of the course of his life expectancy, and $500,000 for Paul.

Because of the finding that the boys were 40 percent liable for the accident, however, the judge awarded the parents $240,000 for Anthony and $300,000 for Paul.

Frank Scnolz, The Scranton Times