Trucking firm suing Wells Fargo for trailers impounded in United Furnishings shutdown
An Alabama trucking firm is suing Wells Fargo financial institution for impounding their trailers after the United Furnishings Industries shut down a number of weeks in the past.
United Furnishings Industries fired its workers through textual content and e mail on the night of November twenty first, leaving greater than 2,700 folks and not using a job. Truck drivers have been instructed to return to the closest United facility and never full any present deliveries.
Based on Atkins Trucking and Booneville lawyer Casey Lott, not the entire returned trailers belonged to United, and never all contained furnishings. Nevertheless, when United Furnishings shut down, Wells Fargo employed safety to lock up the corporate’s services and all of the gear, stopping folks from recovering their trailers. This has left some smaller firms like Atkins Trucking in a decent spot as they try and function with out essential gear.
“Wells Fargo has an curiosity right here, however they don’t have an curiosity in each trailer,” Lott stated. “They’re holding tons of of trailers hostage, trailers and items they don’t personal. Wells Fargo secured the power and gained’t return the property to the rightful homeowners.”
“Once you’re speaking about somebody who solely have a handful of vans and trailers, impounding one or two trailers might be devastating,” Lott stated to the Every day Journal. “They’re frantic attempting to get their hundreds [sic] again.”
Lott believes that any furnishings belonging to the financial institution ought to have been unloaded from the trailers and locked inside the United facility, leaving the homeowners of the trailers free to take again their gear.
“We’re looking for an order type the court docket to drive them to launch different folks’s property,” Lott stated.
The lawsuit shouldn’t be on the lookout for cash, solely an injunctive launch, however Lott hopes to have the case licensed as class motion so the homeowners of different trailers can reclaim their property.
That is considered one of many lawsuits filed in opposition to United Furnishings for the reason that shut down. A Texas firm has sued United for a 22-ton load of copper wire that was alleged to be delivered the day the corporate shut down. The load has been impounded since. A number of different lawsuits allege that the corporate violated the federal WARN Act when it fired all its workers with out discover. The federal Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires firms with greater than 100 workers to offer 60 days advance written discover earlier than layoffs or shutting down.
