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JUSTICE * USA - Courts reverse truckers' big fines
State troopers are writing tickets for up to $25,000, but courts are throwing them out
Raleigh,NC,USA -News & Observer, by Sarah Ovaska -Feb 29, 2008: -- Trucking companies are winning battles with state troopers over fines given to overweight trucks... More than a dozen trucking companies, so far, have sued the state Highway Patrol to contest the penalties, which run as high as $25,000. The companies are asking to pay lesser violations, up to $1,000, and have the big fines thrown out... Judges have sided with the trucking companies in at least seven cases. The Highway Patrol plans to appeal one of the cases, said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office... The most recent batch of victories for the truckers came this week. Wake Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand sided with the trucking companies, who argued that troopers went too far by handing out steep fines when drivers didn't have the necessary number of escort vehicles or were on the road at unapproved times. Rather than just give smaller fines for those minor violations, the troopers determined that the violations invalidated the permits. The troopers then gave out hefty fines that would have been assessed if the truckers didn't have permits... Rand found that troopers were acting outside their authority and ordered the state to return the penalties, $68,200 in all, plus interest, to the three out-of-state trucking companies... Since state troopers got the authority to enforce the overweight vehicle laws in 2004, they have handed out $38.8 million in fines to overweight vehicles. The money goes to the state's public school systems. Only 1 percent of the fines are contested by trucking companies, and even fewer end up in court... Meanwhile, the high-dollar penalties have led some trucking companies to avoid North Carolina altogether...
* SC Johnson awarded $147 million in trucking kickback case
WIS,USA -Forbes/Land Line Magazine -February 28, 2008: -- SC Johnson, has been awarded $147 million in damages in a bribery and trucking kickback scheme... Forbes reported that the case involved the company’s former transportation director, Milton Morris; his assistant Katherine Scheller; trucking company owner Thomas Buske; and Tom Russell of Racine and his company, JMP Intermodal Inc.... Prosecutors said carriers paid Morris hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash bribes to steer SC Johnson business their way. Morris was also accused of inflating rates across the board to cover up the bribes from a few carriers, thus costing SC Johnson even more money... No criminal charges have been filed in the case, but the jury found that the defendants violated the state’s Organized Crime Control Act...
Labels: Court cases
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