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Got fired from a delivery contract.

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Unhappy-maximus

Guest
TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS TEXAS
I need some advice. Do you think I have a good case for a lawyer to persue or am i barking up a dead tree. I contracted to deliver a product and drove aproxximately 2000 miles a week. My wife and I did this for 4 years with no problems. We never missed a week and were consistant in our delivery times and never had any packages missing. About a year ago, we were asked by the company we work for (I will call it ABC)to acquire One million dollars worth of cargo insurance and accident insurance because a company driver (we were independent) ran over a DOT worker and severely hurt him. We asked if this would be conpensatable. We were told that we would be given $75.00 more dollars a week to compensate for having to buy this insurance. We were stupid not to get this in writing. We never received the $75.00 a week. After two months, we contacted the main company, the XYZ, and asked if we could contract the job directly and not subcontract. The man in charge of the distribution service XYZ(a huge company I might add) said sure and we emailed a bid and I have his return email that he said that he hoped that we would keep this in confidence. We never heard anything so we kept on working because we liked what we did and was still able to make a small profit on the money we made. We go to work 3 weeks ago and was told that we would have to go to a stop count pay scale instead of the flat rate we had been paid. This would decrease our pay over 250 a week. We just bought a new 30,000 diesel truck with the understanding that we would have this job to pay for it too. The woman in charge of the terminal told us that they would no longer have the contract with the xyz company anymore so we should persue contracting with the main company. I contact the man who we sent the bid to a year earlier and he said that no that he never heard that the ABC company was quitting business with the XYZ company. Within a half an hour, the owner of the ABC company called and said we were fired. We have a written contract and I am sure we could get the $200 fee for no notice, but my question is, would it be worth it to persue the price of the new truck and the insurance that we were required to carry. How do you fight a big company? Any comments or questions would help. My wife says move on and we will find something else to do. I want to go over the man at the XYZ company and expose his poor business tactics and somehow get our jobs back. Now I am stuck with a new Dodge truck and nothing to haul.

[This message has been edited by Unhappy-maximus (edited June 12, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Unhappy-maximus (edited June 13, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Unhappy-maximus (edited June 13, 2000).]
 


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Attorney_Replogle

Guest
I would say that one of your big potential problems is that while under contract with ABC, you attempted to bypass that contract and deal directly with the client of company ABC. So if your contract with ABC prohibited this, then you don't have a case.

Second, unless your contract with ABC stated that your employment with them was to last until say June of 2003, then they could lawfully terminate you at any time, with or without a reason. This is called an at-will employment policy.

Personally I don't see a case here, yet that is only my opinion. One of the other attorneys may have another opinion.

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Mark B. Replogle
 
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Unhappy-maximus

Guest
I looked over the contract and nothing was stated that we could not have any contact with the XYZ company. Our contract was due to renew in aproxx 3 months. There is a clause in there that states,"Either party may terminate this agreement prior to the expiration of the current contract year by giving the other party at least a five business day written notice of its intention to do so. Both parties will, however, be bound by any specific delivery obligation already incurred and which cannot be completed with the five day notice period. In event either party terminates this agreement without giving the required notice, then, in that event, the breaching party shall be liable to the other for all damages suffered including any atttorney's fees incurred. It is acknowledged that damages for failure to give proper notice before terminating this agreement is difficult of calculation. It is, therefore, agreed that the damages to be paid shall be in the amount of $200.00. The parties may, however, terminate this agreement for "good cause" without prior notice. Good cause for the MCC (That is US) shall be a failure of ABC to pay the mcc in a timely manner or to comply with any of the terms of this agreement. Good cause for ABC shall include theft, use of alcohol or drugs while providing to comply with any of the terms of this agreement."

Should we persue the 200? I think we should in small claims. They didn't give us written notice.

What do you think?

 
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Attorney_Replogle

Guest
Sure, why not? You seem to have a good handle on this so far. You may also want to buy for about $25 a book on How To Represent Yourself At Court from Nolo Press. They are at www.nolo.com.

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Mark B. Replogle
 

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