A Texas-based trucking company has filed for bankruptcy liquidation four days before a wrongful death civil trial filed by the family of one of its former drivers who drowned in 2016 was slated to start in El Paso County, Texas.
J.J. & Sons Logistics, doing business as JJ Transport, of Clint, Texas, filed its petition Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas.
In its Chapter 7 petition, JJ Transport listed its assets as up to $500,000 and liabilities as between $100 million and $500 million. The shuttered company states that it has up to 49 creditors and maintains that funds will be available for unsecured creditors once it pays administrative fees.
JJ Transport once had 19 drivers and 18 power units prior to filing for bankruptcy. In its bare-bones petition, the company listed Fleetone Factoring LLC of Antioch, Tennessee; Auxillior Capital Partners of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania; and Wells Fargo Bank of Des Moines, Iowa, as creditors, although no amounts were given.
Its trucks had been inspected 27 times and two had been placed out of service in a 24-month period, resulting in a 7.4% out-of-service rate. This is lower than the industry’s national average of around 22.3%, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website.
JJ Transport’s drivers had been inspected 53 times over the same 24-month period and one driver was placed out of service, resulting in a 1.9% out-of-service rate. This is lower than the national average of around 6.7%, according to FMCSA data. In the past two years, the company’s trucks had been involved in five crashes, including two injuries and three towaways.
The bankruptcy petition lists Juan Jose Murillo as president of JJ Transport. His attorney, Carlos Miranda, did not respond to FreightWaves’ request for comment as of publication.
The petition also lists the estate of Pedro Rascon Morales as a creditor in its bankruptcy petition.
Wrongful death lawsuit
According to court documents, Morales, 61, drowned in his tractor-trailer on April 18, 2016, in Harris County, Texas, while employed by Murillo and his wife, Esmeralda Murillo, who worked as the company’s operations manager.
On April 17, 2016, Morales was dispatched to deliver a load from El Paso County to Harris County, which was experiencing record flooding. Court documents allege that hours before his death, Morales checked in with Esmeralda Murrillo, who “failed to discontinue [Morales’] trip.
Morales drove his tractor-trailer into an overpass locally known as “The Pit,” where water quickly began to submerge his vehicle. Despite attempts by good Samaritans to save Morales as water rose to depths of over 20 feet, he became trapped and drowned in his cab, according to court records.
A special setting jury trial was slated to start Friday in El Paso County, however, it was canceled after the bankruptcy petition was filed in federal court.
The wrongful death lawsuit, which sought damages of more than $1 million, was filed in December 2017 by Morales’ wife, Maria Socorro Morales; his son, Elias Morales; and his daughter, Dora Hunnicutt. A trial date in the case has been rescheduled multiple times prior to JJ Transport’s bankruptcy filing.
A creditor’s meeting is scheduled for Feb. 26.
Do you have a news tip to share? Send me an email or message me @cage_writer on X, formerly known as Twitter. Your name will not be used without your permission.
Read more articles here:
Ex-Slync CEO Chris Kirchner guilty of wire fraud, money laundering
Tech battle: Samsara sues Motive Technologies for patent infringement, false advertising
E.N. Deboo
Something seems off if the liability amounts in the article are correct —
In its Chapter 7 petition, JJ Transport listed its assets as up to $500,000 and liabilities as between $100 million and $500 million.
Michael Dennis
Bill Hood: read it again, because the driver’s widow didn’t work in dispatch. The operations manager is married to the owner of the company.
Victor
So the driver wasn’t specifically told NOT to drive into the flooding county to make the delivery so he continued, got stuck and drowned and it’s the company’s fault? Every company I’ve driven for or been leased to has always emphasized that we, the people behind the wheel, are the final decision makers when it comes to safety and weather. I’ve had some office people give me grief over pulling the plug on runs due to weather but they were never out there with me in it so I don’t care what they think or said. Even if they threatened to fire the guy if he didn’t deliver, so what? That just shows they weren’t a company to be working for anyway. I’m sorry the driver lost his life but he should’ve stopped the truck and pulled the brake plungers. Turn around, don’t drown!
James Stephens
There’s probably more to the story than what was reported. Texas has some pretty employer friendly work comp laws that make is almost impossible reach the negligence threshold for a wrongful death suit to move forward, let alone scare someone enough to shut down their business
Joey
Good, I hope they get very little money. This needs to happen more so people will understand that a big judgement doesn’t mean you get any money. Only lawyers filing these cases and putting out a lot of money on contingency, then getting nothing will stop these cases from getting filed. Here’s the dirty secret. Most of the time these attorneys know there is no assets to cover these judgements, but they take on the case and take it all the way to trial to get a jury to give a big judgement. The attorneys know they will not get paid. They know their client will not get paid. What they do know is that they will get lots of free advertisement that they got a really big judgement and that brings them more cases from suckers hoping to win life’s lottery. Attorneys should be prosecuted for malpractice because I can promise you that a real offer was made early on in this case that would have put real money in their client’s pocket early in the case. In this case they will likely get nothing after the attorney gets paid.
Randy M Crump
First off, I think is was probably an underpass that he drove into being is where gravity takes the water. Second, did the other person in the cab holding the gun to his head forcing him to drive into the flooded underpass drown also?
Joe
You are the captain of your own ship… they did not “make” the driver go in the underpass… the driver has control over where the truck goes. Frivolous lawsuit. Drivers fault
BILL HOOD
I am not sure what a broker has to do with this story. It is the trucking company he drove for that is being sued, and appears his wife, one of the plaintiffs, was the one the confirmed and dispatched him.