After working most of his adult life as a trainman for BNSF Railway, all Michael Nall wanted to do was get back to work after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a move the company resisted for the better part of six years, even though Nall allegedly passed every physical test his employer required of him.

Nall’s federal disability claims were summarily rejected by a U.S. district court, and he died from a sepsis infection unrelated to Parkinson’s last March, three months before Houston attorney Nitin Sud was set to argue Nall’s case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.