A former FedEx truck driver has been awarded a multi-million-dollar verdict by a jury. The lawsuit was brought after the driver was allegedly sidelined for a knee injury.
Having driven for FedEx for over two years, David Goldstine knew the company policy: don’t move a trailer from the dock without closing the door. But on that day in April 2017, Goldstein wasn’t able to close the door. According to documents filed as part of the lawsuit, the door had been damaged, preventing it from being closed.
“It was dark and raining at the time, so [Goldstine] did not attempt to close the trailer door because he determined that it would be unsafe for him to do so,” the complaint says according to FreightWaves.
But Goldstine didn’t just shrug and drive off. He contacted a supervisor. That supervisor came and couldn’t close the door either. A second supervisor who was called in allegedly said that “it was not his job to close the broken door.”
When a third supervisor, Randy Mott, confronted Goldstine the next day wanting to know why the trailer hadn’t been moved, Goldstine told him the story. During the retelling, he told Mott that he had a knee injury which made him feel that attempting to force a broken door closed would be unsafe.
According to the suit filed against FedEx, Mott responded that Goldstein would “need to find another job.” Goldstein was then pulled from driving duties. And despite getting a fresh physical which deemed him fit to return to duty, Goldstein never drove for FedEx again.
Instead, Goldstein brought a lawsuit against FedEx for violating his rights protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
FedEx claims that Goldstein “refused to return to work after he was medically cleared.”
A jury sided with Goldstein, awarding him $6.85 million in past and future economic losses, emotional damages, and punitive damages.
A statement from FedEx Freight states that they are considering an appeal.
Source: freightwaves, bloomberg
I drive for 30 + years and hope he gets everything he’s entitled to. A guys works hard,does whats expected and gets reprimanded by a supervisor?
Sounds like “not my job “ supervisor is not a team member. He’s probably the one sitting in the office picking his nose and looking at porn on his phone.
I guess I need his lawyer. Western Express did something very similar to me. Only, I’ve been unable to get hired anywhere else.
Get someone to see what your record says. Companies will put crazy stuff on there and you can fight it.
Hireright.com check your record. You’re entitled to one free copy per year, same rules as a credit report.
How does one who is doctor certified, medically qualified to drive able to sue a company under the Disabilities Act?
You don’t have to be disabled to have a disability covered under ADA.
Probably a Philadelphia jury. They are famous for verdicts like that. Suprised it wasn’t more.
Just because you’re disabled does not mean you can’t be medically cleared to drive. There are plenty of guys in wheelchairs, missing fingers and arms, repaired joints, arthritis, etc out there perfectly fit to drive.
Same thing im wondering,6 million is lil far fetched too,thats whats wrong with alot of this country now, theyll pass a law or something to derail the next guy suing id say,6 million and some bucks,worked for them a cpl yrs….wow
Something doesn’t add up… How does a broken door become a knee injury become an ADA rights violation? There’s something we’re not being told.
Right…and how does “dark and raining” make it too dangerous to attempt to shut a trailer door. This one has me completely confused.
Based on the info provided in the article, he had the knee injury before the broken door incident. He felt that attempting to close that door in an abnormally hazardous situation (wet and slippery + knee injury + trying to close a jammed/broken trailer door + normal dock hazards = abnormally hazardous situation) would be imprudent.
The story doesn’t specify if it was the trailer door or the dock door. FedEx has a policy that requires dock doors be closed before a trailer is moved from the dock. If it is the dock door, your confusion is understandable.
Read the story. It wasn’t an on the job injury. It was discriminatory because of a disability
His attorney is a nightmare for all trucking companies lol. It’s more bad trucking companies than good ones. It’s alot of free labor and discrimination going on and I hope drivers come forward with lawsuit.
Fedex should appeal this. There’s no way this driver could ever make 6.8 million dollars driving for FedEx. Also I agree with previous statements that there’s something we’re not being told
I’m guessing this driver has had previous run-ins with management and has been looking for this ‘opportunity’ for a long time (though his scant two year employment is hardly a long time in itself)
Yeah you just need a good attorney that’s all oh FedEx got plenty of money just pay the man and suck it up
From the Comments being led
ft in here, I’m assuming everyone agrees with FedEx. If you work for that company, you would understand some of the stuff that doesn’t make sense (i.e, dark and raining, can’t pull door because of knee injury). Get a job there and see for yourself
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was a history with this guy. I worked with a guy who had no problem marching into the boss’s office, threatening to take them to court every time he didn’t get his way. The company usually backed down and gave in to him to avoid the hassle.
Good for the driver.
everyone who is confused about what has happened it has nothing to do with the door or the rain or anything like that what the law suit was about he had a injury that he felt made it unsafe for him to try to close the door and he was fired for it wich is against the Ada rules that’s why FedEx lost and has to pay him
This story don’t add up @ all! FedEx Supervisors don’t verify trailer doors or trailers are broken, MECHANICS DO. IF a trailer is broke, the driver 1st stops @ the mechanics shop & has it repaired. IF it can’t be repaired, then dispatch, dispatches the driver a different so he can be on his way while broken trailer is unloaded & reloaded to a new trailer. ALL 28′ FedEx trailers have ‘ROLL UP DOORS’ & are SEALED @ THE ‘ENCLOSED’ DOCK after being loaded BY the dock crew who then reports to dispatch that it’s ready to go. FedEx dispatch then calls all drivers going out @ SAME time & gives them their paperwork with trailers & seal numbers. The driver hooks the set up, pulls to staging area, verifies everything, goes inside where dispatch then re-verifies the trailers & seal numbers. Driver gets his copies where the info’s then entered into the ELD, & verified again @ the gate by security & he’s off. Sounds more like a made up fantasy story because if true? It’d be all over the news & not just in a truckers blog.
FedEx Ground. This is FedEx Freight, a whole different division.
I guess UPS employees need to wake up and take this information to heart. This stuff happens every day at UPS. The sad part is they are represented by the Teamsters Union and the elected slate in the locals don’t have big enough balls to properly represent the employees.
So this is becoming an anti-union rant ? Simply put, Unions would not exist if terrible business owners had not made billions from slave employees before unions.
I really have a feeling FedEx will win the appeal. Something just doesn’t add up here. The driver probably does deserve some damages….. but not $6.85 million. The damages I think he deserves wouldn’t pay his attorney.
his attorney will get 40% of it.
Good for the driver. However, the door was already broke and couldn’t be closed even by the supervisor. Trailer should’ve been fixed. If the driver had a knee issue, by him forcing the door he could’ve slipped and caused more damage to his knee. Thus creating a workmans comp claim.
On an even sadder note, FedEx drivers are some of the worst drivers on the road and this is my opinion. I see them tailgating daily or plain driving recklessly. And yes I’m a truck driver too and have been for 28 yrs.
This is why SOME management can seem so cold sometimes. Anything they say can be used against them. Sometimes, they are idiots, like this FedEx guy, and sometimes, its because they are human and say “sorry” which instantly means “the company accepts blame for whatever”.
whenever you get to testify in a suit of this nature in front of a jury always say “I couldn’t even afford an attorney for this so I had to agree to give 80% of anything awarded to my lawyer.”
The issues were the damaged door, and the mouth of a supervisor.
The driver stated “trying to close a damaged door would be unsafe”. In addition to poor weather conditions, and darkness, a weak knee was added into the mix.
I believe, the verdict was fair. That drivers carreer is done.
But nowhere does it say the knee injury was a result of being employed by FedX. I agree with the others. There is something(s) not being said. No where does it show FedX responsible. ADA or no ADA.
he must have disclosed his knee problem on his application and they chose to hire him anyway. 2 years later he says he can’t perform a task due to the limitations he was hired with. thats 100% ADA
Well with 6.85 million I don’t think he will be looking for work.
Who is the attorney? I need that attorney
The driver tried to closed the door put it was damaged, so if he would hv slip trying to close the door ? What would hv happen,the driver call for help got two supervisor an they couldn’t closed the door, thin comes along mr smart as supervisor, , the next thing happened they take him off from driving, because of his knee,! An he pass the physical to work with a bad knee, FedEx supervisor number three discriminated against a drug that’s why he won the lawsuit Thin FedEx going to say the driver never came back after after he pass the test again “ yeah right” that’s why they lost the case “ pay the man lol” lot of companies hv bullies supervisors and management and managers that’s why FedEx lost The case “ enjoy ur money driver an hv a great rest of ur life “
Amazon did it to me with door to door delivery because of my breathing they told me I was at a higher risk no mask and still no Covid 7 months later!!!!
I would like to ask any employee involved, driver in question and supervision, if trailer door was damaged, why was trailer loaded in the first place. Driver deserves damages, but not in the millions. The company I drive for has outside vendors who repair all types of damage, from floor to roof, and doors.
Sounds like driver was looking for a payday and got it. Easier than working I guess
If you work for big truck company you can make money like that.
If the trailer was backed up to a dock, wouldn’t it be light and dry enough inside to close the door? Do they not have lights inside loading docks or roofs at FedEx? I used to work for FedEx, both of my knees are bad, maybe I should sue them too! Maybe get close to $14M!!! Yee haaa!!!
Because he mentioned a bad knee( which lots of drivers have knee problems) the super thought he could get rid of someone who inconvenienenced him. Don’t forget he did get a supervisor to help and they still couldn’t get the door closed. So they did try. If he had of moved the trailer with the door left open he would be reprimanded for that. Big companies have funny rules and not everything fits inside those rules. This one just went awry. That supervisor just cost his boss 6.8m.
If manager was good man he should say to driver : ” sit here drink some coffee and I will call for technician to fix this door” . Instead of that manager forget about this accident like it should be resolved by itself.
The way Samuel Barradas reported the story was very poor. Lazy reporting and leaving out key facts of why the employee was awarded the amount of 6.8M. Probably due to having to meet a deadline to make this edition. Jeremy Herring is correct saying we are not being told something as Samuel left out important facts whether because not a good reporter or on purpose..who knows. The purpose of printing for this edition was to fill empty space on Truckers report. Useless story.
Who was his legal help?
I’ld like to know who represented him… I could use a good attorney.
??? Nothing but another frivolous lawsuit. He ADMITTED he “was already injured” which MEANS, he (should have been on workers comp) & NOT WORKING IF HE WAS AFRAID TO GET HURT, PERIOD! He will LOSE on appeal because, there’s no way he could pass a NEW physical if he was “injured” which means he LIED on the physical about being FIT with no inuries. A LAZY BUM who’s afraid of rain & work. FedEx is only guilty of docking a broken trailer because the broken door wasn’t reported by the ‘prior’ (let the next guy worry about it) driver to the mechanics in shop. 2 other Supers tried to close it & seen it was broken, so if he was taking the load, dispatch would have gave him a different trailer already ready to go to hook up to.
I thinknhe should get money but NOT 6.8 million wtf is this country doing??!! Future losses?? The dude never would have made that much money had he stayed. Pay him life’s wages but 6.8 million thats crazy.
I used to be a safety director at a large company. I ALWAYS told drivers that they needed to work safely, and if they followed the safety rules laid out by the company, they would never get hurt. Works both ways. If the driver pulled away from the dock, and freight fell out, the driver would be to blame. After all, the first article I read stated ” the trailer door needs to be closed before moving the trailer”. The fact that these idiot supervisors punished him for not following the rules is on them. As far as drivers looking for an easy payday, I have rarely seen that. NO driver has the right to tell another driver that his pain is not real. Or that he should “work through the pain”, or that he is lazy or faking it. For example, a driver with bad knees could drive an automatic with little problem, but a standard would be brutal all day. He never stated that he got hurt at work. Only that his knees were bad. If for some reason he had to climb up on the ICC bar to access the door, a simple 3 foot drop to solid ground would hurt like hell. If you ever look at a trailer, you will notice that very few have any kind of handhold. Trailers are designed to be accessed from a loading dock, not from the ground. The fact that drivers climb off the ground into a trailer, is on the driver.