Tow Company Hit with $5 Million Lawsuit

Memphis Tennessee tow company A1 Towing and Hauling, which operates under a number of assumed names, was sued by three trucking companies for $5 million dollars over predatory towing and other allegations.

Western Express Inc., MHT Group Inc., and Church Transportation and Logistics filed the civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. It accuses A1’s Towing and S-Line Parking of preying on commercial truck drivers in violation of the federal anti-racketeering act, RICO. 

The suit charges that A1 Towing and Hauling “engaged in a conspiratorial enterprise in direct violation of multiple local, state, and federal laws," and that the towing company “predatorily lured and entrapped commercial truck drivers and their vehicles” and “through the use of both the threat of and at times the actual use of unlawful force, subsequently proceeded to illegally harass, intimidate, assault, batter, hijack, and/or hold hostage plaintiffs’ vehicles, property, and/or plaintiffs’ employees/agents until plaintiffs paid as ransom to the defendants exorbitant and unlawful ‘debts’ for their release.” 

The defendants are also accused of fraud, wire fraud, interfering and violating Tennessee towing statutes and the Tennessee Booting Consumer Protecting Act, and interfering with commerce by threat or violence. 

The 56-page filing goes into detail about the defendants’ activities, including specific examples experienced by the plaintiffs. 

Source: truckinginfo.com