The issues in the case by a railroad employee under the Federal Employer's Liability Act are (1) whether the railroad was entitled to judgment despite the verdict against the railroad, for failing to protect the employee from contracting West Nile virus, because mosquito bites are a natural threat excluded from the federal law's scope and (2) whether sufficient evidence supports the jury's verdict that the employee contracted the virus in the course of his employment. Nami sued Union Pacific after contracting West Nile virus and encephalitis allegedly while working on track maintenance in Brazoria County, claiming Union Pacific failed to warn about mosquito-illness dangers and failed to provide repellant or require its employees to use it. The trial court denied Union Pacific's motion for a judgment notwithstanding the jury's verdict for Phillips, arguing that the so-called ferae naturae doctrine precludes recovery under the federal law and that legally sufficient evidence does not support the jury's verdict.
