Roger & Tami Nash
5195
Mount
205-631-0391
5-19-2003
Chief Justice Roy Moore
Ref: 1011475 ATS, Inc., and ATS, Inc. of
v.
Roger and Tami Nash
Dear Justice Moore,
We respectfully ask once again that you reconsider the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision involving ATS, an employee leasing company who we feel is partly responsible for the death of our son, Justin Nash. We pray that you will be patient with us and try to understand our need to see that ATS is held accountable as the employer of Roger Walker.
We know that there is always more than one way to look at a given situation. Please try to see this question about who is the employer of the truck driver from our viewpoint. First, we know that Mercer hired the driver for ATS. He was not an existing employee of Mercer; he was hired by Mercer for ATS. Next, we have the document that states that ATS wants to be recognized as the sole employer of the driver. And every other form that was filled out showed the driver to be employed by ATS. Not just payroll forms, but DOT forms, driving test forms, blood test forms, and past driving record forms. Mercer did not supervise the day-to-day work of the ATS truck drivers, he just told them where to drive his trucks. In his mind, (as well as ours), he supplied the trucks, and ATS supplied the drivers. If the drivers worked for ATS, performing ATS’s business of driving trucks for their clients, why is not the “master responsible for the servant”?
We think that you would agree that many different things can contribute to the events that lead-up to a tragedy such as the wreck that killed our son. We know that companies can, over a period of time, contribute to an atmosphere of carelessness that allows an “accident” to happen. By their policies, or the lack of policies or negligence, they “set the stage” for a tragedy to occur. But far too often when something tragic happens, they try to claim, “We had nothing to do with it”. We believe that this is what ATS is doing with the death of our son.
They lead their clients to believe that the employees are solely the responsibility of ATS. They claim to take responsibility for verifying that the employees comply with all legal requirements.
They claim to be actively involved with the concern of having safe drivers on the road. But the truth of how they view themselves came to light when four people were killed by one of their employees: now they claim to be only the “payroll company”.
If they were really concerned with safety, they would have assured the quality of the drivers being hired for them. Instead, it appears that their only true concern was to add another man on the payroll. To allow them to escape any accountability in this case is just not right, and it does nothing to prevent it from happening again.
This ‘loophole of accountability’, is a very real concern to many that are involved with the issues of truck safety.
Attached is a copy of an article from the “CRASH” (Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways) website. It validates what we have been saying about the dangers of using the present arrangement of employee leasing for the hiring of truck drivers. To our knowledge, the author knew nothing about our case when he wrote this article. But it points out the potential problems with leasing truck drivers. These same problems all came together in the hiring of Roger Walker and resulted in the deaths of four innocent victims.
Where there is no accountability there is no reason to change.
We respectfully ask that you please let stand the jury decision that holds ATS jointly accountable for the deaths of Justin, Josh, Connie, and Jeannine.
Thank you for considering this case again,
Roger and Tami Nash.