Trucker awarded $1.6M in racial discrimination case
Ohio-based trucking company Hamidiy, Inc. has been ordered to pay one of its former truckers more than $1.6 million after calling the driver racial slurs during a paycheck dispute.
On Oct. 5, Judge Patrick R. Wyrick of the Western District of Oklahoma federal court ordered Hamidiy to pay Roscoe Gatewood $628,325 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. Gatewood accused the company of racial discrimination after he was terminated from this job as a truck driver.
According to the court order, Gatewood was in the middle of a delivery run on June 1, 2022, when he called his Hamidiy supervisor to inquire about his paycheck. Gatewood claimed that his paycheck was $3,000 short.
Later that day, he was contacted by a man that court records named only as “Russ,” whom Gatewood knew to be the president of Hamidiy. On the call, Russ allegedly cursed, threatened Gatewood and his family with bodily harm and death and repeatedly referred to Gatewood using a racial slur derogatory to African Americans. Gatewood is a Black man.
Gatewood was then fired, according to court documents. He was ordered to pull over and leave the Hamidiy truck immediately.
A second call from Russ and several follow-up text messages proceeded along the same lines.
During a motion hearing in April, Gatewood described the nature of the phone call:
“This man (Russ, president of Hamidiy) went on to tell me how, before he got into trucking, he was in the mafia; he’s killed many (racial slur) before. Where he come from, he’d feed his dog before he would feed a (racial slur). ‘We call you the N-word over there. We have no respect for you.’”
Tired of listening to the phone call, Gatewood hung up on Russ. He then received additional text messages from Russ. One message read:
“As a matter of fact, get out of my truck, you’re terminated. Leave it right there or I’m going to send some of my guys to come and get you. I see you’re in Illinois right now.”
Gatewood filed a lawsuit in an Oklahoma federal court in July 2022. The lawsuit alleged that Hamidiy violated 42 U.S.C. section 1981, which prohibits intentional race discrimination in the enforcement of contracts. Specifically, Gatewood claimed that the company violated section 1981 by terminating his employment in part due to his race.
Hamidiy did not represent itself in the case. In his order, Wyrick said that “Hamidiy’s president’s termination of Gatewood was part of a reprehensible, dehumanizing, racist screed.” LL
Related stories:
Related News
