trucking laws and liability

Hello,

I own an RV business and just hired a guy to transport an rv from Kentucky to California. He has a trucking business and mainly hauls trailers etc behind his 1 ton dually truck and transports things coast to coast. I was referred to this guy by another gentlemen and he told me his insurance only covered trailers and NOT motorhomes. I told him I was ok with that because our dealer insurance would cover the coach if something were to happen but we have a 5k deductible. In transit this guy drove 2100 miles in 40 hours with no sleep at all and he ran over some construction cones which did about $2200 damage to our motorhome. He delivered the coach and I told him I would have to get an estimate before I paid him. he is threatning to sue us for not paying him the $2000 he was charging us. Our damages on the coach are more than what he was charging and he said he is not liable as he told me he did not have insurance. We did not have any contracts etc. What are his legal rights and does he need a CDL to do what he was doing?? He did not have a CDL and he said he doesn't need one because this was personal and not commercial. I thought because he is charging a fee that he MUST have a CDL and keep a log book etc. I think he fell asleep and drove off the road to be honest and that's what the damage was from.......

Any ideas would be helpful.


Thanks,

AK

 

yes we learned something. we had nothing in writing at all and the damage he caused is real close to what we owe him for fuel and his time. If we don't pay him we will use that money to fix the coach but I just want to make sure he doesn't have any legal recourse to us for not paying him. He provided the service but did it illegally from what i'm hearing as I asked for his cdl and log book and he said he didn't have it. I told him I wasn't paying him a cent until either my coach was fixed or we would fix it ourselves and not pay him. That is when he threatened to take us to small claims but I think he is just talking out his you know what......

 

he was driving it. it's a class A diesel pusher mtrhome . it's about 30,000 lbs gvw and 40' in length with air brakes.

 

is there a public site to verify if someone has a CDL??