Civil suit starts against C.R. England
In court documents the plaintiff alleges that C. R. England hired Olivares knowing he had been sent to prison for killing three men as well as admitting he previously used cocaine and marijuana.
The Trucker News Services
8/24/2009
PORTLAND, Ore. — A trial began Monday in a civil complaint that accuses C.R. England Inc. of gross negligence. The suit, which is being heard in Portland's federal courthouse, is being brought by Andrea Lister, the daughter of a woman who was severely injured in an accident with one of the company's trucks in late 2005.
Her mother initially filed suit but has since passed away from cancer.
In the suit, which seeks $430,000 in compensatory damages and punitive damages, Lister alleges that the company ignored the driver's checkered past and pushed him onto the highway, where he hit 85-year-old Marjorie Dunn.
Four years ago, Jesus Nieves Olivares, who is also named in the suit, was carrying a load of bananas when he allegedly ran a red light and collided with Dunn's Ford Escort Station wagon.
In court documents the plaintiff alleges that C. R. England hired Olivares knowing he had been sent to prison for killing three men as well as admitting he previously used cocaine and marijuana.
The plaintiff also alleges that Olivares, recruited in Puerto Rico, had insufficient knowledge of English “sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries and to make entries on reports and records … .”
The witness list includes people who saw the accident, accident reconstruction experts and medical staff, along with C. R. England's director of accident prevention, Dustin England, the driver, Olivares, and the company's vice president of safety compliance, Gordon Lambert.
The plaintiff's exhibit list includes a number Qualcomm messages to and from Olivares: “ETA of load may have cost life of an old woman,” and “Old woman may be dying because I couldn't go faster.”
Lister accuses the company of keeping Olivares on the road even after the prior incidents, and of “intentional violations” of federal motor carrier safety regulations.
However, court papers filed by C.R. England's lawyers say the company should not face punitive damages because one of its drivers ran a red light and caused an accident.
The company, they say, is not liable because it did not act maliciously or with conscious indifference to anyone's health, safety or welfare.
Calls to comment by The Trucker to C. R. England, based in Salt Lake City, and its attorneys, Cosgrave, Vergeer and Kester in Portland, Ore., were unsuccessful.
Associated Press sources contributed to this report.
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