American Trucking Association tries to hasten port drayage case appeal

In the wake of a recent ruling by U.S. District Court upholding the legality of the Port of Los Angeles concession requirements for motor carriers, The American Trucking Associations (ATA) is trying to expedite its appeal.

Declaring that there could be “irreparable harm” to harbor truckers, the ATA is asking the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to begin hearing the case two months earlier than scheduled.

“As you know, the court earlier this month denied our request for an expedited hearing schedule on our appeal,” said Curtis Whalen, executive director of the ATA’s intermodal conference. “Yesterday we filed a motion - which was again unopposed by LA/the defendants - to reconsider.

According to Whalen, the proposed briefing and hearing schedule is:

Opening brief: December 28, 2010; Answering briefs: January 31, 2011; Reply brief: Within 14 days of answering briefs; Oral argument: May 2011.

“It is essential to the businesses that provide drayage services at the Port of Los Angeles that the present appeal be resolved on an expedited basis,” stated ATA’s legal counsel.

By doing so, counsel added, it would “minimize the irreparable harms they are facing and to bring long-overdue certainty to how they will have to conduct their business operations at the port.”

As reported in LM, U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder upheld the legality of the Port of Los Angeles concession requirements for motor carriers.

At the same time, though, she enjoined the requirement involving employee drivers while the case was under appeal to the 9th Circuit.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, meanwhile, is hoping that the appeal will fail, and it will make the port’s drayage operations the exclusive domain for union members.