It was a bleak and frigid night on I-88 somewhere in northern Illinois. The icy wind whipped across the flatlands, grazing the endless rows of white, brittle remains of last year's corn crop. The only place to be that night was in your house, wrapped in your Snuggie, with a warm glass of brandy, watching videos of past vacations at Daytona Beach.
Alphonse Maddin knew he had to deliver his truckload of stuff, but he was low on gas. Somehow, he had not been able to find his assigned gas station in the vast, treeless midwestern expanse. So he drove and he watched, as the needle slowly but surely slid below the little red "E."
Some thirty years earlier, in the land of cherry blossoms and the Potomac River, Congress passed the Surface Transportation Assistance Act. The law said (among many other things) that an employer could not take adverse action against a driver because the driver refused to operate a truck for safety-related reasons. (The law was later amended to add security-related reasons.)
Back on I-88, Alphonse Maddin was afraid he was going to run out of gas, so he pulled his rig over to the side of the road. He waited for an inexplicable 15 minutes, and then decided to venture back out in search of a truck stop.
No go. His trailer brakes were frozen.
Alphonse Maddin called his boss. "The trailer brakes are frozen, and I'm out of gas," he said. "Don't worry," the boss said, "sit tight, and we'll send help."
"Well, hurry up," Alphonse Maddin replied. "It's colder than Neil Gorsuch's heart out here." He hung up.
The sky was black, sprinkled with stars that looked like the static electricity you get when you walk across a carpet in fuzzy socks after petting a cat. The road was so flat that you could see the lights of the next village, even though it was 20 miles away. Alphonse Maddin turned up the heat in his cab and rubbed his hands.
Sputter-sputter-sput. Then an ominous mechanical groan. Then silence. And no more warm air. His heater had died.
Alphonse Maddin cursed softly. "Wouldn't you know it." He found some shipping blankets, wrapped himself up in them, and went to sleep.
The roar of a passing semi woke Alphonse Maddin. 1:30 a.m. He had been asleep for two hours, and still no roadside assistance. His torso and feet were numb. Fumbling for his phone, he called his brother. "It's me, Alphonse," he said.
"You sound funny. You been drinking?"
"No, man - I've been asleep in my cab. But it's really cold."
"Turn your heat on, you idiot!"
"It doesn't work."
"Have you called the company?"
"Yeah, they're supposed to be sending somebody out, but that was two hours ago. Nobody is here."
"Listen. You need to call them again. Tell them you don't have any heat. You're gonna freeze to death."
"OK." Alphonse Maddin called his boss. "Man, I'm freezing here," he said. "I don't have any heat in my cab. I need to do something. My body is going numb."
"Well, drive to a service station."
"I can't. The brakes on the trailer are frozen. I could unhitch the trailer and drive the cab to a gas station."
"No, you can't abandon the trailer. We'll get somebody to you. Hang in there."
Alphonse Maddin waited another 30 minutes. Still no assistance. Alphonse Maddin left his cab. The brittle air felt as if it would shatter from the cold like a crystal wine goblet in the vicinity of a Memorex tape of Ella Fitzgerald. Alphonse Maddin unhitched his trailer. Then he got in his cab and drove to the nearest service station. Fifteen minutes later, the assistance arrived. Alphonse Maddin met with the assistance crew and returned to safety and warmth.
Then he was fired for driving away while leaving his trailer by the roadside.
In a courthouse in Denver, three judges were hearing Alphonse Maddin's lawsuit. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Administrative Review Board had both found that Alphonse Maddin's employer had violated the STAA. What they'd found was that Alphonse Maddin had "refused to operate" his truck for safety reasons.
Two of the three judges in Denver agreed with OSHA and the ARB that operating a truck (driving the cab to the service station) was, in fact, a refusal to operate a truck. Therefore, Alphonse Maddin's employer had taken adverse action against him for engaging in legally protected activity.
Since two out of three judges sided with Alphonse Maddin, Alphonse Maddin won his case. But the third judge, Neil Gorsuch, said that "operating a truck" could not mean the same thing as its opposite, "refusing to operate a truck." He said that if Congress wanted to protect "operating a truck," it could have said so. But it didn't. So Neil Gorsuch said that Alphonse Maddin should not have won his case.
Back in the land of cherry trees and the Potomac River, people thought that Judge Gorsuch was a mean man for saying that a law should be applied as it was written. But some people were saying that Congress maybe should write better laws.
EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT: If an employer had called me beforehand, asking whether it should fire someone in Mr. Maddin's position, I would have said not to do it, regardless of what the STAA literally says. That's my role as an advisor to employers. But the judge's role is to apply the laws as they are written. In my opinion, Judge Gorsuch was exactly right, based on the plain language of the STAA.
Image Credits: Map of I-88 a screenshot from Google Maps. Other photos from flickr, Creative Commons license. Midwestern (Iowa) highway in winter by Tony Webster; Chuck Norris by Stevan Sheets; Gorsuch protesters by Master Steve Rapport.
- Partner
Robin has more than 30 years' experience counseling employers and representing them before government agencies and in employment litigation involving Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with ...
Robin Shea has 30 years' experience in employment litigation, including Title VII and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (including the Amendments Act).
Continue Reading
Subscribe
Contributors
- William A. "Zan" Blue, Jr.
- Obasi Bryant
- Kenneth P. Carlson, Jr.
- James M. Coleman
- Cara Yates Crotty
- Lara C. de Leon
- Christopher R. Deubert
- Joyce M. Dos Santos
- Colin Finnegan
- Steven B. Katz
- Ellen C. Kearns
- F. Damon Kitchen
- David C. Kurtz
- Angelique Groza Lyons
- John E. MacDonald
- Alyssa K. Peters
- Sarah M. Phaff
- David P. Phippen
- William K. Principe
- Sabrina M. Punia-Ly
- Angela L. Rapko
- Rachael Rustmann
- Paul Ryan
- Robin E. Shea
- Kristine Marie Sims
- David L. Smith
- Jill S. Stricklin
- Jack R. Wallace
Archives
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010