PITTSBURGH - A Black truck driver has lost his racism claim against the company that fired him over reports he was speeding with unsecured items on his trailer.
Other white drivers had made mistakes but weren't terminated, Brandon Evans argued in his lawsuit against Sentry Wellhead in Pittsburgh federal court. But Judge Marilyn Horan found on Jan. 29 their situations weren't comparable, defeating Evans' claim he was treated differently than similarly situated white employees.
"None of the white comparators that Mr. Evans points to were involved in similar circumstances to those of Mr. Evans," Horan wrote in granting Sentry summary judgment.
"Additionally... a (B)lack employees was also involved in an accident and he was not terminated."
Evans was a service technician at Sentry, which delivers products to oil and gas companies. He sued the company in September 2023 after his termination and, in addition to the racial discrimination claim, alleged Sentry violated federal and state labor laws.
Sometime in his one year on the job, an individual called Sentry to report one of its drivers was operating recklessly while on his cell phone, with items in his trailer loose. After finding the truck's location, an investigation determined the driver was Evans.
A shop manager confirmed there were loose items on the trailer. GPS records revealed he had been speeding. This was enough justification for Sentry to fire Evans, who also had received a ticket for parking in a handicap spot, it said.
But Evans felt the company had different motives. He pointed at three white employees with checkered histories, including these examples:
-One drove a Sentry truck into a ditch to avoid rear-ending a car that had abruptly stopped in front of him;
-Another was accused of threatening his wife with a knife; and
-A third totaled a Sentry truck after suffering a "sneeze attack."
Unfortunately for Evans' lawyers, a Black driver had also crashed into a plow truck on a mountainous area during a snowstorm and kept his job.
"Mr. Evans indicates that he had made a complaint in the past... about race discrimination; however, such a complaint does not in any way refute Sentry's profferred legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for terminating Mr. Evans," Horan wrote.
She also rejected his claims Sentry failed to pay overtime related to on-call time. A 24/7 on-call period kept him from engaging in uninterrupted personal activities like being with his children, Evans claimed.
Testimony showed that if Evans finished a job early but was still being paid, he would go to a casino or shopping.
"The record evidence supports that while Mr. Evans was on-call and waiting to be called in, he was able to engage in personal affairs such as spending time with his children, going to the casino and going shopping," Horan wrote.
"Such personal activities are the type that preclude compensability under the (Fair Labor Standards Act) and (the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act)."