The Great Train Seizure

THE GREAT TRAIN HEIST

Article by Janet Seiberg for Behind the Bar, a column appearing in the January 18, 1993 issue of The Connecticut Law Tribune.

Even the thieves in "The Great Train Robbery" never pulled off a railroad heist as skillfully as New Haven's Cahill, Goetsch & DiPersia.

The firm's three partners struck twice this month, first seizing Metro-North commuter train and then hitting an Amtrak locomotive. Unlike their fictional counterparts, however, these modern-day robbers were acting under court orders.

Charles C. Goetsch and a Connecticut Deputy Sheriff commandeered the 3:50 p.m. train bound from New Haven to Grand Central Station on Jan. 9. They were acting on a Writ of Execution in Edward Manes v. Metro-North Commuter Railroad, a case in which the railroad was found liable for injuries Manes sustained when he fell from a train bridge during a repair job. A jury ordered Metro-North to pay $1.1 million to the partially paralyzed man.

The pair began their raid at 3:20 p.m. at Metro-North's claims office in New Haven's Union Station. After several minutes of occasionally loud argument, the sheriff, Goetsch and Goetsch's partner, George Cahill, took off to find a train. A Metro-North police officer and claims officer Jack McGovern, who had a look of incredulity plastered on his face, followed.

The sheriff appeared determined to find a working train, saying he wanted something he could auction off for a lot of money. The group began examining trains in the yard, but maintenance workers told them those cars were broken. The sheriff and Goetsch then decided to take the only train in the station, #1575, which was scheduled to leave in four minutes for New York.

When a claims officer tried to object, the police officer jumped in. He got on the radio and informed trainmaster Joe Kanell that a sheriff had seized the train. "They can't do that," Kanell could be heard responding. The cop said the sheriff could--and was.

The Sheriff began hanging signs on the train saying it was against the law for anyone to touch or move the seized property. The Metro-North police officer began ringing the train in yellow "police crime scene" tape, and train officials ordered all the passengers off the train and boarded a new train that had just arrived in the station from New York.

Goetsch then told Kanell, who had come down to the platform, that he only wanted the last three cars: Kanell could keep the rest. Kanell, standing on the platform with a look of disbelief on his face, said this was the first time anyone ever seized a Metro-North train. "It's just a shock," he said. "I thought they were kidding."

The great train seizure might have ended then if claims agent Gene Romanik had not appeared. He immediately confronted the sheriff and said the train was going to leave the station. If the sheriff wanted to arrest him, then so be it.

Goetsch tried to explain to Romanik that he had already seized the last three cars and gave permission for them to be moved. Romanik finally relented. His bosses, however, did not give up the fight. Metro-North's counsel, Patrick J. Flaherty, called U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas that evening, asking him to lift the writ. Cahill agreed to release the cars until both sides could argue in court on Monday. At that hearing,

Nevas ruled that the writ was perfectly legal. He also blasted the railroad, saying their poor handling of these types of cases cost the taxpayers of New York and Connecticut millions of dollars.

"The railroad's position is consistently unreasonable," Nevas said in court. Their evaluations of the cases are very, very low. Their expectation as to what they think these cases are worth are unrealistic, and this is a perfect example." Nevas, however, did ask Goetsch to wait until 3:00 p.m. to seize the cars to give Metro-North time to pay. It ended up delivering a check to the sheriff that afternoon.

At that point, it appeared that Cahill, Goetsch & DiPersia's train-grabbing days were over. But that was not to be the case. The very next day, Cahill seized an Amtrak locomotive. He acted after a client, a former Amtrak ticket agent who was brutally attacked in the Hartford station's parking lot, became frustrated with the railroad's failure to pay a $1.75 million judgment. Cahill says that if Amtrak fails to pay soon, he will seize a second engine and auction them both off.

LOCOMOTIVE SEIZED IN SETTLEMENT

Article written by Thomas R. Violante for the January 13, 1993 edition of The Connecticut Post.

NEW HAVEN -- A former Amtrak employee who won a suit against the government-funded rail agency took the unusual step of having a deputy sheriff seize a locomotive parked on a spur in the Union Station rail yard Tuesday.

Engine 902, an electric locomotive built by General Electric and worth about $2 million, was seized in the yard near Hallock Street. Yellow tape stretched around the engine and utility poles, warning passers-by to stay clear. The deputy sheriff, who executed the seizure, taped to several windows large notices stating that the engine had been seized in settlement of a $1.8 million judgment for the former employee. "We went there [Amtrak] and made a demand on them, and they didn't pay. And we decided to go and seize the train," the sheriff said.

Delores Schneider of Springfield, Mass., was the plaintiff in the lawsuit. She accused the company of not providing proper security while she was working as a ticket agent during the 3 p.m. to midnight shift in Hartford's Union Station on Superbowl Sunday in January 1986. While leaving the station she was assaulted and beaten and was about to be raped when she broke free.

During a trial in January 1992, she won a judgment against Amtrak for $1.8 million, her attorney Charles Goetsch said. Amtrak filed a motion for a new trial, which was denied. Its appeal in the 2nd Circuit Court is pending, but Amtrak failed to post a bond to stay the judgment. Schneider and her attorney felt that waiting seven years for her settlement was long enough and asked U.S. District Judge Ellen Rice Burns to hear the case Monday. Burns granted the seizure of the locomotive and upheld her decision Tuesday night. "It was time that Delores was paid for what she suffered at the hands of Amtrak," said Goetsch. Howard Robertson, an Amtrak public affairs spokesman in Washington, D.C., would only confirm that the seizure had taken place.

KNOCK KNOCK

Article by Scott Brede, The Connecticut Law Tribune

George J. Cahill, Jr. of New Haven's Cahill, Goetsch & DiPersia is the first to admit that Metro-North Commuter Railroad claims agents don't exactly relish his visits.

After all, their face-to-face dealings with his firm tend to carry a certain message: Pay up and pay up now. And watching a sheriff seize a commuter train on the spot -- yes, it's been done before -- is hardly Metro-North's idea of an enjoyable afternoon. Still their latest encounter left even Cahill a bit shocked, he says.

"I don't know what they thought they could accomplish by locking their doors and hiding inside," says Cahill.

Along with partner Charles C. Goetsch and a trusty deputy sheriff, Cahill went Nov. 13 to Metro-North's claims office at New Haven's rail station. The purpose of the visit was to collect a $59,000 jury verdict awarded in July to James Sorrentino, an injured Metro-North engineer the firm represented.

Claims officials apparently spotted Goetsch, Cahill and deputy sheriff Ronald Mangano as they crossed the street to the train station, Cahill says. When the trio reached the claims office, the door was locked. Other Metro-North employees told them the claims agents were in the office, but nobody responded to their knocking.

The standoff ended nearly three hours later when Metro-North officials finally agreed to let Mangano serve them a writ of execution.

Cahill says he knew the claims agents couldn't hold out forever. The nearest bathroom is down the hall from their office, and "eventually nature would have to call," he says.

Still, he's not quite sure what led them to unlock the door, and Metro-North defense counsel John A. Blazi, a Waterbury solo, declines to comment on the matter.

During a 1993 payment dispute, Goetsch and another deputy sheriff commandeered a Metro-North train just before it prepared to leave for New York. Not so on Nov. 13. Cahill says he left the station that evening with only a promise to receive a check the next day for the full amount of the award plus a sheriff's fee of nearly $6,000.

The check came a day late -- and only after Cahill threatened to have Mangano seize about a half-dozen motor vehicles used by Metro-North supervisors, he says.

His strong arm tactics, Cahill adds, became necessary after months of nagging Metro-North to fork over the amount due Sorrentino.

Following the verdict, the company unsuccessfully sought to deduct from the judgment the portion of Sorrentino's medical expenses that it incurred, he says.

Metro-North later sent Cahill about $14,000 subtracting the sick pay Sorrentino collected while recuperating from his injury, Cahill says. A judge denied that "novel" attempt to reduce payment, he adds.

By October, "it was apparent they were not going to pay the full judgement." That, Cahill says, is when he gave Metro-North an ultimatum: Pay up by Nov. 13 or prepare for a sheriff's visit. The company chose the latter.