Attorneys botched a case against Amtrak over the deaths of two young boys, lawsuit says
The mothers of Jahaad Atkinson, 9, and Ah’Yir Womack, 12, who were killed by an Amtrak train in 2023, sued lawyers Emeka Igwe and Daniel Purtell, as well as their firms, for legal malpractice.
The mothers of two Chester kids who were struck and killed by a train in 2023 are accusing their former attorneys of botching their wrongful death lawsuit against Amtrak.
Jahaad Atkinson, 9, and Ah’Yir Womack, 12, were walking on the railroad tracks and hit by a southbound Acela train. Amtrak operators knew people were on the tracks at least 20 minutes prior, but the Acela proceeded as scheduled, according to the legal malpractice complaint.
That information shows Amtrak acted “wantonly and recklessly,” the suit says, but the attorneys who initially represented the mothers failed to include it in their case until it was too late.
Atkinson’s mother, Siani Gordon, and Womack’s mother, Wydeia Kimble, say lawyers Emeka Igwe and Daniel Purtell, as well as their respective firms and colleagues, were professionally negligent when pursuing their case against Amtrak.
“This was an avoidable result,” says the suit, which was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas last month. “Defendants failed to present necessary evidence in their possession to pursue valid legal theories that would have led to a successful recovery.”
Aaron Freiwald, the mothers’ current attorney, declined to comment.
Igwe said in a statement he disagreed “in the strongest terms possible” with the notion he did not represent his clients “competently and diligently.”
“The case is in active litigation and we are unable to substantively comment outside of the fact that we continue to support our former clients’ best interests,” Purtell said in a statement.
The wrong theory
Atkinson loved to play Roblox, the color red, and dressing up as Spider-Man to get his siblings to laugh. Womack had an infectious smile, a similar proclivity for a funny bit, and couldn’t dance to save his life.
That’s how family members and other community mourners remember the children who on April 29, 2023, took a fateful shortcut on the way to a park in Chester’s West End.
Atkinson, Womack, and other children passed through a hole in the fencing and walked along the tracks of Amtrak’s ultra-busy Northeast Corridor. It was a popular route for neighborhood children.
Mothers Gordon and Kimble sued the National Railroad Passenger Corp., the entity that operates Amtrak, in Philadelphia federal court in July 2023. Igwe hitched the case to the hole in the fence, and sought $20 million in damages.
“Amtrak knew this was a danger, which is why they erected this fence in the first place,” Igwe said in August 2023.
Amtrak argued Pennsylvania law doesn’t require railroads to erect or maintain fencing around tracks. And because the boys were trespassing, Amtrak can’t be held liable for injuries caused by negligence, the rail company asserted.
A federal judge sided with Amtrak in March 2024, dismissing the mothers’ complaints but saying they could file an amended pleading.
Roughly two weeks later, Igwe filed an updated complaint that argued the tracks heading to the collision area were straight and provided “unrestricted visibility,” so the train operators “should have observed” the children.
In March 2025, Igwe was deployed to Kuwait as part of his service as an attorney with the Delaware National Guard. He turned the case over to Purtell and his firm.
The McEldrew Purtell attorneys blamed Igwe for deficiencies in the case, according to the malpractice lawsuit.
Igwe did not follow up on deposition requests, the attorneys said in one court filing. In another, they attributed the case’s “general malaise” in part to Igwe’s “lack of diligence.”
The malpractice suit also claims Igwe and Purtell declined an offer by the railroad to mediate, without informing the mothers.
In a May 2025 hearing, U.S. District Judge Mary K. Costello asked a McEldrew Purtell attorney directly: “Is there willful and wanton conduct?”
“On this record, no,” the attorney said, according to a recording of the hearing.
“I think that kind of seals it up,” Costello responded.
Two months later, the judge sided with Amtrak and ended the case.
Doomed case or legal malpractice?
But according to the legal malpractice complaint, the attorneys did have evidence to allege willful or wanton conduct by Amtrak: the Amtrak Police incident report, which notes over-the-radio discussions of someone on the tracks.
McEldrew Purtell neglected to raise that “vital record” at the hearing, the malpractice suit says, and the firm’s lawyers filed a separate lawsuit in April 2025, which relied on the Amtrak Police investigation findings.
Costello earlier this year dismissed the case for the final time.
The malpractice lawsuit says Igwe’s and McEldrew Purtell’s representation of the mothers amounted to professional negligence.
» READ MORE: Up to $10 million in fencing will be installed along rail tracks in Chester, where two children were killed last year
Igwe has asked a Philadelphia judge to dismiss the malpractice lawsuit.
The dismissal happened because of Pennsylvania law and the facts of the case, Igwe said in a statement, not any issue with the representation.
“No amount of additional discovery could have altered the Court’s determination that a railroad has no duty to fence its property, that moving trains are not hidden dangers to children, and that longitudinal walkers along tracks are not licensees,” Igwe said.
