Union Pacific Wins Texas Supreme Court Ruling in Case of Worker Infected with West Nile Virus

AUSTIN – Mosquitoes are so ubiquitous in Brazoria County that towns celebrate the blood-sucking insect with slogans and festivals. But when a railroad worker suffered serious complications in 2008 from West Nile virus, he accused his employer of failing to provide a safe workplace.

Nearly eight years later, the Texas Supreme Court reversed the man’s $752,000 judgment, finding insufficient evidence that Union Pacific could have reduced the risk or prevented mosquitoes from swarming in damp, weedy areas around its tracks in the coastal county.