Burns White’s Appellate Department, led by Edwin Palmer and Ira Podheiser, won a significant victory before the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of a railroad client.
This appeal arose from a lawsuit filed the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. The lawsuit alleged that the railroad was negligent in maintaining a portion of I-95 in Philadelphia. The railroad owns and operates a branch rail line which spans this portion of the roadway. In 2018, multi motor vehicles collided on I-95 near where the railroad bridge spanned the highway. The Plaintiff claimed that the railroad was negligent in maintaining the roadway, allowing water to pond there after a heavy rainstorm, which allegedly contributed to the accident.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (“PennDot”) took the position that that the railroad bore responsibility for inspection of the bridge’s drainage system. In response, Burns White, on behalf of the railroad, filed a declaratory judgment petition in front of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). The petition alleged that, pursuant to an order issued by the PUC in 1966 when the portion of I-95 was built, PennDot, not the railroad, had sole responsibility for inspecting and maintaining the roadway below the railroad bridge spanning I-95. The PUC rejected the railroad’s arguments, and found that Conrail, not PennDot, had responsibility for the bridge’s drainage facilities.
The railroad appealed this ruling to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Edwin Palmer and Ira Podheiser represented the railroad before the Commonwealth Court. In a published opinion issued on June 3, 2026, the Court unanimously reversed the PUC and directed that the PUC’s 1966 Order assigned responsibilities for the bridge’s drainage facilities to PennDot, not the railroad.