Via Shutterstock

Via Shutterstock

Maryland’s highest court affirmed yesterday that even if you incur an accidental injury at a Metrorail station, you can’t sue the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The Maryland Court of Appeals rejected suits filed by individuals who slipped and fell on wet floors at Metro stations in Prince George’s County, the Washington Examiner reports. Although lots of people file personal-injury lawsuits against Metro—62 in federal courts this year alone—the ruling has some lawyers giving up on representing clients who want to sue the transit agency:

“It means WMATA slip-and-fall cases are going to be virtually unwinnable,” said Ron Miller, a personal injury lawyer whose firm handles cases in Maryland and the District. “We wouldn’t take the case, no matter how good.”

Although juries in lower courts awarded both plaintiffs cash sums, the high court overturned the rulings and held that as a state agency—rather, one operated by two states and D.C.—Metro has sovereignty as established by the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“We are pleased with the decision and consider it to be within well-established law,” a Metro spokeswoman told the Examiner.

Injuries caused by Metro vehicles, however, are still subject to lawsuits. But injuries connected to standard operating policies, such as routine cleaning and maintenance (or lack thereof), are not actionable in court.

It’s an issue that comes up every so often, but the 11th Amendment was passed in large part so that individuals could not sue states into bankruptcy. Perhaps the most famous case of Metro avoiding a lawsuit verdict is that of Richard Smith, a Bethesda man who died in July 1998 after he had a fatal heart attack while climbing a stationary escalator. His family sued, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld Metro’s legal immunity.