City ordered to pay for interfering with truck traffc

The judge earlier had issued an injunction against the city. (The Trucker File Photo)

The Trucker News Services

7/10/2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A federal jury on Wednesday ordered the city of Greenwood, Mo., to pay the owner of a rock quarry damages for interfering with truck traffic on city streets.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple had issued an injunction to prevent the city from enforcing an ordinance outlawing heavy trucks on South Second Avenue.

Martin Marietta Materials contends that route is the most practical way for traffic from its quarry to reach Missouri 291.

Whipple presided over a jury trial where the quarry operators sued the city for breach of contract.

The jury awarded the quarry operators $30,203.65 for the breach of contract and $438,006.24 for Greenwood’s violation of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

In March, however, a jury in Jackson County Circuit Court awarded Greenwood $11.9 million from the quarry for compensation and punitive damages from the trucks.

That judgment has been appealed.