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Truck Driver Awarded Damages in Lawsuit Against Interstate Van Lines
Posted on Mar 24, 2010
An employer can’t take the law into its own hands and swear out an arrest warrant, just because it has a civil dispute with an employee. That is basically what a Fairfax jury concluded.
A Fairfax Circuit Court jury awarded Eugene Brye Jr. nearly $600,000 in a lawsuit against Fairfax County-based Interstate Van Lines. Brye, a 43-year-old truck driver, had sued his former employer for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment.
In 2008, Brye submitted a written notice to Interstate Van Lines that he intended to quite, effective in three weeks. Brye sent this notice after two years of driving as an independent contractor for the company. Just six days following the notice, as he headed from Interstate Van Lines’ headquarters in Springfield to his home in Alabama, he received a phone call from Interstate President John D. Morrissette. It was reported that Morrissette told Brye to bring back his trailer by saying, “if you do not turn around immediately, you will not like the consequences.”
Brye decided not to turn around at that point, hung up on Morrissette and stopped answering his calls. Interstate Van Lines contacted the Fairfax County police and made the allegation that Brye was a terminated employee with a stolen trailer. State troopers stopped Brye in Alabama and arrested him at gunpoint, according to Brye’s lawyers.
After spending 34 days in Macon County jail, Brye returned to Fairfax, where prosecutors immediately dropped his charges. Brye filed a lawsuit against Interstate Van Lines and was awarded $50,000 in damages for malicious prosecution, $200,000 for false imprisonment and $340,000 in punitive damages.
This case just illustrates the fact that you never want to resolve a civil dispute by calling the police and making a false claim. The jury is taking this same position through the verdict.
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