Jury awards S.C. Johnson $147 million in trucking kickback case

By EMILY FREDRIX
The Trucker News Services

2/26/2008

RACINE, Wis. — A jury awarded consumer products giant S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. $147 million in damages Tuesday to compensate it for losses suffered in a trucking kickback scheme.

The Racine-based maker of products like Ziploc and Glade sued its former transportation director, Milton Morris, and a dozen other people and companies alleging a widespread scheme to bilk it out of millions of dollars. The company had asked for more than $100 million in damages.

The company claimed Morris, trucking company owner Thomas Buske, and others inflated rates and pocketed the excess. They paid each other with trips to places such as Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, rounds of golf and cash transferred through poker games.

SC Johnson's lawyers asked the jury in closing arguments to send a message about organized fraud. The defendants' attorneys admitted in closing arguments that their clients took part in the scheme but said SC Johnson didn't lose that much money.

Jurors heard from more than a dozen witnesses during the nearly month-long trial.

After deliberating for almost two days, they sided with SC Johnson and ordered the trucking companies and former executives to pay a total of $147 million.

Morris was caught in 2004 and subsequently fired. He conceded liability and agreed to allow the court to assess a penalty at the conclusion of the trial, according to court records.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case.