U. S. Supreme Court Victory
Ends With $1.29 Million Settlement
When Police Officer Sean Greene was injured in 1998, he was told that he could not sue the MTA because his FELA rights were lost with the merger of the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Police. As an employee of the MTA Police, he was told that he was only eligible for Workers’ Compensation.
Attorney Michael Flynn informed Officer Green that the MTA was wrong and filed a lawsuit.
The determined attorney then convinced a District Court Judge on Long Island to hold that the MTA was operating a railroad in interstate commerce and therefore members of the MTA Police Force were covered by Federal Law, not State Law. Within a year, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals agreed and wrote a historic opinion finding that the MTA was subject to FELA and was not entitled to 11th Amendment Immunity as they claimed.
The MTA appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and lost. Very few FELA lawyers have won at the Supreme Court of the United States in the last 25 years.
The case was scheduled for trial and on the morning of jury selection, 11/24/03, the case settled. Police Officer Greene will receive a total pay out of $1.29 Million with a present value of $900,000, which is in addition to his 3/4 pay, disability pension and payment of future medical expenses provided by the MTA.
As Seen In  September 19-25, 2003
Train Track
By ROSAMARIA MANCINI
Pleading not guilty to a traffic ticket was the best thing Michael Flynn ever did for his career.
It was 1974 and Flynn and his friends were returning home from a camping trip in upstate New York when their vehicle was pulled over for allegedly driving in reverse on Hutchinson River Parkway. “It was an outrage, we didn’t back up on the parkway,” said Flynn, a solo-practitioner in Garden City, who explained that he pulled over to warn his friends that their tire was going to blow. |
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Flynn represents RR workers
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RAILROAD MAN: Michael Flynn, a solo practitioner in Garden City, has made a name for himself as a railroad attorney. |
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The then 19-year-old Brooklyn College sociology major minoring in film decided he was going to take pictures of the vehicle, the tire, the shredded trail of rubber and fight the ticket.
Flynn went before the traffic court in White Plains armed with enlarged photographs he had taken at the scene along with a slide projector. He also prepared an opening statement and a cross-examination of the state trooper who had pulled them over.
The judge, impressed by his defense, told him there was no need for a cross-examination and threw the ticket out.
He also told him that if half the lawyers in the state were as prepared as he was, cases would move more quickly through the system. He also suggested that Flynn drop sociology for a career in law.
Today Flynn no longer fights traffic tickets but instead goes head-to-head against the largest railroad companies in the nation. He’s developed a reputation as the man railroad employees turn to when they believe their rights have been violated.
Victor Fusco, partner in Woodbury-based Fusco, Brandenstein & Rada, a firm that specializes in labor law, said Flynn’s “your guy for railroad law.” “He takes on cases that most people don’t want to touch because they’re difficult and he succeeds,” said Fusco, whose firm represents the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association.
William Saar, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalman, said he’s recommended Flynn to several of his members because he knows the ins and outs of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, Railway Labor Act and the Safety Appliance Act. Ditto for Robert Melendez, chairman of the Transport Workers Union in New York and the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalman.
“He’s hungry. He eats the cases right up,” Melendez said.
Flynn, 50, jumped at the chance to represent James Casey, a Long Island Rail Road signalman injured while trying to lower a 100-pound ballast heater stored on top of a shipping container. Flynn argued that the LIRR violated its own safety rules, which require that heavy materials to be stored at waist height.
The nine-member federal court jury agreed and awarded Flynn’s client $1.75 million in damages.
Flynn said he sees representing the plight of the railroad worker as a noble cause. “It’s good work. I feel good at the end of the day,” he said.
In addition to handling these types of cases, Flynn serves as counsel to the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen and the Transport Workers Union nationwide. And on Long Island, he is counsel to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Sheet Metal Workers, International Railway Supervisor Association and International Brotherhood of Fireman and Oilers.
Flynn received a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College in 1974 and his juris doctorate from New York Law School in 1978.
He began his legal career with Arnold Elkind, a former commissioner of public safety under President Lyndon Johnson who specialized in railroad law. “He [Elkind] told me that I would be trying cases and he kept his word,” said Flynn. He tried his first case just days after being admitted to the bar.
Flynn said he was initially overwhelmed because he knew little about railroad law. “There was no question on the state bar exam that dealt with this practice,” he said.
But he quickly learned that subject matter wasn’t that important. It could be learned, and what really mattered was having the necessary skill set to try cases.
By 1985 Elkind decided it was time to retire, and Flynn took over his practice. Since then Flynn has grown the firm slowly. It is staffed by two attorneys who work of counsel and a four-person support team.
He prides himself on handling most, if not all of the firm’s cases, but he said he is looking to grow and is scouting for talent.
The biggest challenge is running the business. “I have to do it all and it’s difficult, but if I had nothing else to do I would still do all of this,” Flynn said.
Photos by Bob Giglione
Reprinted by permission, Long Island Business News.
 Another Landmark Decision Further Protecting the FELA Rights of the MTA Police
On a cold morning in January of 2001, a Police Officer drove his car to the local train station as part of his normal commute to Manhattan to begin his tour of duty. After he parked his car in the employee parking lot, he slipped on the ice-covered surface of the lot and fell, injuring his back. He picked himself up and proceeded to walk up the station staircase toward the platform when a stair crumbled beneath his foot, causing him to fall down the stairs and hit his head and back on the landing.
Attorney Flynn secured evidence that proved both the dangerous condition of the parking lot and the staircase were the subject of a customer complaint card that had been completed and sent to the station clerk two days earlier. Nonetheless, the MTA and the LIRR refused to recognize their responsibility for the negligent maintenance of their parking lot or their stairs. Earlier this year, the railroad filed a motion asking the Court to throw out the Federal Court case claiming that Police Officers commuting to work are not covered by the FELA and the language on the back of the “free pass” relieved them of liability for injuries sustained by those using the pass.
Attorney Flynn disagreed and filed a brief with the Court outlining the history of the FELA and cited the original intent of Congress in drafting the FELA in 1908. Attorney Flynn argued that a Police Officer is performing a service to the railroad from the moment he enters the property and pointed out that commuters frequently approach Police Officers with questions about trains, delays and directions. Police Officers are available to train crews for assistance with problem passengers; in many cases, the mere presence of a Police Officer on a train or platform is a crime deterrent.
On October 23, 2004, the United States District Court Judge published a Decision agreeing with Attorney Flynn on all five counts presented and denied the MTA and LIRR’s Motion for Summary Judgment. As a result, any Police Officer injured while commuting to work on the railroad will now have a Federal District Court Decision to cite as precedent to protect his or her rights under FELA.
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