BENTON – In 22 days, a highway crash generated two suits against Hirschbach Motor Lines and a sealed emergency motion for a deep and wide discovery order.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Reona Daly blocked the blitz, finding no authority in statute, rule or case law for such an order.
She asked for a reason to seal the motion and when she didn’t get an answer, she unsealed it.
It would have required defendants and others to preserve 20 kinds of evidence including social media data of Hirschbach driver Eric Campbell for six years.
The accident occurred on Dec. 13, around 6:30 a.m., on southbound Interstate 57 at West Frankfort in Franklin County.
State police closed the southbound lane and issued an alert.
The alert stated that a 2017 maroon Chevrolet truck “stopped on the outside shoulder and right side of the right lane on a hill crest,” and identified Leron Lewis Jr., 23, as driver, and Brandon Moffett, 25, as passenger, both of Mobile, Ala. It stated that their unit “was partially blocking the outside lane.”
It stated that Campbell, 43, of Anthony, Fla. approached the location in a 2019 bronze International truck and, “Unit 2 struck Unit 1.”
It stated that Lewis and Moffet were transported to a hospital with serious injuries.
According to local news sources, clearing the lane took two hours.
State police issued Lewis a citation for improper parking on a roadway.
Lewis sued Hirschbach Motor Lines and Campbell eight days later, with attorney Kenneth Levinson of Chicago filing the complaint.
Levinson wrote that the relevant portion of I-57 was a marked, active construction zone.
He claims Campbell drove at a speed too great, failed to keep a proper lookout, and “failed to adhere to certain rules and regulations.”
He also claims Hirschbach knew Campbell was unfit to operate the truck and failed to remove him from his duties. He claims Hirschbach failed to discipline or retrain Campbell when it knew or should have known he failed to comply with rules and regulations.
Lewis seeks damages for injury, disfigurement, pain, suffering, lost earnings, medical expenses, and disability or loss of normal life.
Levison also filed an “emergency ex parte motion for preservation of evidence,” against Hirschbach, its insurers, Campbell, state police, and a towing company.
“It is imperative that this evidence be preserved so that this case can be fully investigated,” he wrote.
He sought to preserve:
-Trucks, trailers, electronic monitoring data, freight information, and all cab communication concerning Dec. 13.
-Telephones of all three truckers and any data on them.
-Photographs, video, audio, and statements or notes of any person with knowledge of the circumstances.
-Email among defendants, agents, and third parties after the accident and a week before it.
-Insurance claim files, vehicle inspection reports, Campbell’s qualification file, and his personnel file.
-Logs, receipts, planners, bills of lading, trip documents, toll payments, certificates, registrations, and other contents of Campbell’s truck.
-Campbell’s daily log or recording device and all supporting data including receipts for at least six months prior to the crash.
-Geographic tracking data of both trucks for six months before the accident.
-Campbell’s accounts, user names, passwords and data relative to social media and networking websites in the last six years.
The motion lasted a day.
Daly found it failed to meet or even mention the requirements of civil procedure for asking a court to issue an ex parte temporary restraining order.
“It is also unclear why this motion was sealed,” Daly wrote. “Judicial proceedings should be as open as possible.”
She found there must be a compelling interest for sealing a document, and Lewis didn’t provide it.
She gave him eight days to show cause why the seal should remain.
She waited 13 days, and ordered the clerk to unseal the motion on Jan. 4.
Passenger Moffett sued Hirschbach and Campbell on that date, with Ian Brendel of Mobile filing the complaint.
It mostly matched Lewis’s complaint except for changes in style.
Brendel added statements that flashing lights on the trailer were activated and that Hirschbach failed to notify Campbell about the construction zone.
He moved to consolidate the suits, linking them through a preservation letter he sent to Hirschbach and Campbell about the same items.
Neither complaint identified the employer of Lewis and Moffett.
Both names appear on an employee list in the July 2019 magazine of Florida Marine Transport of Mandeville, La.