Truck driver sues repair company over repeated problems

The owner of a commercial truck claims a repair company failed to adequately fix his vehicle, causing it to break down in the middle of the road.

Melvin Adderton, doing business as MJM 917 Trucking, filed a lawsuit June 24 in Jefferson County District Court against Performance Management, doing business as The Performance Companies, and Cleveland Mack Sales, doing business as Performance Truck.

Adderton claims he brought his truck to the defendants, and they began performing repairs on it Jan. 19.

On Jan. 23, Adderton returned the truck to the defendants after he noticed the repairs were not performed, according to the complaint. He received the truck back on Jan. 24 under the assumption that the vehicle had been fixed in a workmanlike manner, the suit states.

"Unfortunately, the truck broke down in the middle of the road due to a lack of service and/or repair by Defendants and the Plaintiff called the Defendants to apprise them of same," the complaint says. "At that time, Defendants towed the vehicle to their premises for another alleged attempt to repair the vehicle."

Still, the vehicle has not been repaired, Addertson claims.

Adderton claims the defendants violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by causing confusion as to the approval of services, by representing that services have a characteristic they do not actually have, by representing that services are of a particular grade when they are actually of another and by representing that work has been performed when it has not. He also alleges breach of contract against the defendants.

In his complaint, Adderton seeks actual and treble damages, plus pre- and post-judgment interest, costs, attorneys' fees and other relief the court deems just.

Conrell Brown, Ronald E. Reynolds and Janeri Jael Rivero of The Brown, Brown and Reynolds Law Firm in Bellaire will be representing him.

The case has been assigned to Judge Gary Sanderson, 60th District Court.

Jefferson County District Court case number: B187-129.