After much soul searching and prayer, the Families filed a civil law suite against the Truck Driver, the Trucking company, and the Employee Leasing company. We felt that each of these parties were responsible for the wreck. We realized that in order for change to take place, the cost of irresponsible actions must exceed the profits that they generate for the companies involved.
The civil court case took place in Jefferson County Alabama. Because there were four victims and multiple parties to the suite, it was a very long and painful ordeal, lasting nearly 2 weeks. We won a very large jury award, but soon learned that the Employee Leasing Company, ATS of Georgia, appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court.
The case took a very long time
to work it's way through the system, but on
April 25, 2003, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled
against us and released ATS, the employee
leasing company from all liability in our case.
They ruled that ATS was not the “real employer”
even though they still are very involved with
the safety management of the drivers.
We filed for a reconsideration, but on October,
3, 2003,the Alabama Supreme Court denied our
request for reconsideration and released ATS
from all liability in our case. We will be
adding more information about the case to this
web site soon. We must do all we can to prevent
these companies fro making the same mistake
again. They need to see that their lack of
policies about placing unsafe drivers on the
road before checking with the previous employers
did contribute to Justin's death.
You can read the decision at:
-http://caselaw.findlaw.com/
(Alabama Supreme Court decisions)
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Below are copies of a few of the different
letters that were sent concerning the court case
against ATS of Georgia. Reading these will help
you understand our concerns and the reason for
filing the civil suits. We have listed only the
letters written to Judge Roy Moore, but each
Justice received similar letters. We were very
disappointed in all of the Supreme Court
Justices, but especially Judge Roy Moore. He did
the very thing he accuses the other justices of
doing in his Ten Commandments Case, he ruled
against us based on the outcome of previous
cases, not on the intent of the law.
-Letter
1 to Judge Roy Moore.
-Letter
2 to Judge Roy Moore.
-Letter
3 to Judge Roy Moore.
-Letter
4 to Judge Roy Moore.
-Letter
5 to Judge Roy Moore.
-Roger
Walker's Employment Acceptance with ATS.
-Our
letter to ATS after we lost our case.
-The
Reality of PEO'S (Professional Employment
Organizations).
*************************************************************************************
To illustrate the inconsistencies in the law
about employee leasing, a recent case in the
United States Tax Court found TLC (Transport
Labor Contract/Leasing), the parent company of
ATS, to be the employer of the truck drivers
that they lease to companies such as Mercer.
They used the same arguments as we did to prove
that leasing companies exercised enough control
over the drivers to be considered the employer.
Using the very same tests, the Alabama Supreme
Court says that they are not the employer, while
the US tax court says that they are. Until this
confusion is ended, the leasing companies will
continue to mislead trucking companies about who
will be responsible for the driver’s actions.
If you would like to read about their decision,
follow this link to the -US
Tax case against TLC
