HOUSTON – An October 2018 state district lawsuit accusing a local transportation company of cheating its drivers out of commission “for years” was modified to include additional plaintiffs.
The suit against ASAP Freight Systems, Inc., originally filed by Larry Holt last Oct. 8 in the Harris County 113th District Court, is now a class action complaint with Brandon Davis, Rachel Dison, Joe Dison, Amanda Gonzalez, and Shae Kelly joining Holt as co-plaintiffs on Jan. 22.
“The proposed class definition is as follows: All truck drivers who served as contractors for ASAP Freight Systems, Inc. from 2009 to the present who have signed at least one contract that does not mandate arbitration,” the amended petition says.
According to court filings, the plaintiffs “entered into a contract with the company to receive surcharges plus a percentage of the invoiced amount to customers for transporting material with his truck,” but they were “fraudulently” underpaid.
The suit further accuses ASAP official Greg Chapman of misrepresenting to the workers that they “would be paid pursuant to the contractual terms in order to induce the plaintiffs to sign the contracts.”
The complainants allegedly received pay stubs “that failed to state the full amount that was charged to ASAP Freight’s customers or break down the different components of the full charged amount, so the plaintiffs were unable to calculate the true amount of compensation that they were entitled to under the contracts.”
Chapman and owners Marek and Sherry Menger join the business as co-defendants in the litigation. The Mengers are no strangers to legal troubles as they were sued for breach of contract by another driver.
Consequently, the plaintiffs seek no more than $5 million in damages.
They are represented by Patrick O’Hara of the O’Hara Law Firm in Houston.
Harris County 113th District Court Case No. 2018-72036