Gale Carter, et al. v. Paschall Truck Lines
United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky
Counsel: Justin Swidler, Joshua Boyette, Manali Arora, Travis Martindale-Jarvis
On October 12, 2017, Gale Carter and Forbes Hays, former lease operators and over-the-road drivers for Paschall Truck Lines (“PTL”), filed a federal lawsuit currently in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky asserting, among other claims, that PTL violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) by misclassifying them as independent contractors instead of employees and failing to pay all minimum wages due.
PTL denies the allegations of this lawsuit and assert that, at all times, PTL complied with the FLSA and paid the drivers in accordance with the law.
On April 10, 2019, the District Court granted the Plaintiffs’ request to conditionally certified their FLSA claims (alleging unpaid minimum wages) as a collective action pursuant to the FLSA. A collective action is similar to a class action, except that you must submit a consent form if you wish to join the case. By submitting a consent form, you will be electing to join the lawsuit as a collective action member and you may be entitled to recover damages for wage and hour violations should the drivers prevail or settle and will be bound by the judgment, whether favorable or unfavorable. As a result of the ruling, the following individuals have been sent notice of the litigation informing them of their opportunity to join the case: any driver who drove for PTL from October 12, 2014 through the present, signed an Independent Contractor Service Agreement with PTL, and had an agreement whereby PTL would remit truck lease payments to a lease vendor. A copy of the court- authorized Notice is reproduced below. In granting conditional certification, the Court has expressed no opinions regarding the merits of Plaintiffs’ claims.
You may also review the authorized notice, the complaint, and the order granting certification.