Snead v. Redland Aggregates Ltd.

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

I

A

Edwin de Steiguer Snead, a plaintiff, is the chairman of Georgetown Railroad Co. (“Georgetown”), another plaintiff. In 1984, Snead and his brother Bill 1 began designing and building a new type of railroad car that they called a “dump train,” which consists of a group of open-topped railroad hopper cars joined together and to a transfer car. A conveyer belt runs under each hopper car to the transfer car. Because each hopper car has sloping side walls and gates in the bottom, bulk material can be discharged easily from the cars onto the conveyer belt, which then…