ATA, Port of LA Ask Court to Expedite Appeals

The American Trucking Associations and the Port of Los Angeles Tuesday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit for an expedited hearing of their appeals in the port's clean-truck case.

If the appellate court in San Francisco grants the request, the opening brief would be filed in late December and the answering briefs would be filed by Jan. 31, 2011. This schedule would advance by about two months the schedule proposed earlier by the 9th Circuit.

The ATA is appealing a ruling last month by U.S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder in Los Angeles to re-impose a preliminary injunction prohibiting the port from implementing the employee-driver mandate in its clean truck case pending appeal to the 9th Circuit. The Port of Los Angeles is joining ATA to seek expedited handling of the appeal by the 9th Circuit.

Judge Snyder let stand another port concession requirement that harbor trucking companies in Los Angeles establish off-street parking provisions for trucks when not in use.

The employee-driver mandate is a critical element of the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck plan. It has national significance because allowing Los Angeles to mandate the use of employee-drivers would open the door to unionization of harbor truck drivers not only in Southern California but in seaports across the country.

At present, most of the drivers who shuttle containers into and out of ports are owner-operators, and these independent contractors, by law, can not be organized by labor unions. The Teamsters are attempting to organize harbor truck drivers and strongly support the Los Angeles provision, along with their allies including environmental and community organizations.

Judge Snyder on Sept. 10 entered a final judgment stating that the Port of Los Angeles falls under the market participant exception to federal preemption law and was therefore free to implement its clean-truck concession requirements, including the employee-driver mandate.

The port promptly published a schedule by which motor carriers were to begin phasing employee drivers into their fleets by the end of 2011. The mandate required that 100 percent of the drivers be employees by Dec. 31, 2013.

ATA appealed Judge Snyder's decision, and on Oct. 25 she re-imposed the preliminary injunction prohibiting the port from implementing the employee-driver mandate. Judge Snyder said she did not doubt the correctness of her previous ruling, but she recognized that the market participant doctrine in this case presented "substantial and novel legal questions."

It is now up to the 9th Circuit to determine this matter when it takes up the case early next year.

ATA and the port requested expedited treatment by the 9th Circuit "so that a necessary level of certainty can be reached on the terms under which motor carriers can serve their customers when draying containers to and from the Port of Los Angeles," the parties stated in their joint request.
(Source:www.joc.com)