Conference scheduled to discuss towing flap
ST. GABRIEL — Claude Porter does not know where his truck is but he wants it back.
The 1989 Ford F-350 flatbed pickup that he used to haul junk cars to a scrap yard was his livelihood, he said.
But after a 2009 traffic wreck, failed negotiations with a towing company and a dispute with the state, Porter does not have his truck — it was sold by the towing company — or a steady means to earn a living, he said.
Porter is seeking compensation or the return of his truck when his lawyer sits down with state District Judge Janice Clark and attorneys for the state and Guy’s Towing Service for a settlement conference Tuesday.
The parties are trying to resolve a lawsuit Porter filed.
The attorney for Guy’s Towing said his client sold the truck legally.
Porter, 60, was driving his truck near Burbank Drive and Bluebonnet Boulevard on July 23, 2009, when another vehicle crossed the center line and crashed into him, court records show.
Porter, who was not injured, said his truck was “t-boned,” causing a front tire to fall off.
The State Police responded to the crash and a trooper ordered a heavy-duty tow truck from Guy’s Towing to haul the damaged truck away.
The heavy-duty tow truck proved to be too large for the job and a medium-duty wrecker was dispatched to clear Porter’s truck from the scene, the records show.
The towing bill came to $875.
“They charged me for both tow trucks,” Porter said. “I didn’t think that was fair. I didn’t have that kind of money on me … so they impounded it.”
When Porter went to talk to the tow company a week later, he said his bill had ballooned to $1,048 because the company had added storage costs, an administration fee and a fuel surcharge to the bill.
Porter, who said he was making about $2,000 per month hauling scrap metal, couldn’t afford to pay the bill.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission regulates the fees towing companies charge. Spokesman Colby Cook said a PSC investigator worked with Guy’s Towing and successfully lobbied the company to drop the cost of the heavy-duty wrecker and some of the storage fees.
Cook said he does not recall what the amended bill came to, but “Mr. Porter refused to pay.”
A report from the State Police shows that Trooper Jessie Shelton also intervened on Porter’s behalf and called an office manager with Guy’s Towing to have $350 taken off the bill.
“I informed her that it was an error made by the State Police and asked if she could remove the heavy duty tow truck charges from Mr. Claude’s bill ... She agreed to remove the heavy duty charge,” Shelton wrote.
Porter, however, said Guy’s Towing never amended the bill and continued to ask for $1,048.
Porter said he decided to petition the state. Louisiana regulates wrecker services and impound lots through the Towing and Storage Act.
By law, Porter had until Aug. 13, 2009, to appeal the bill and request a hearing. A receipt from the U.S. Postal Service shows that Porter mailed a certified letter to the state, requesting a hearing on Aug. 11, 2009.
But the State Police called Porter on Aug. 15, 2009 and advised him that his appeal had been denied and there would be no hearing, court records show.
Louisiana law, at the time, required a petitioner to pay their towing bill before filing an appeal, Cook said. The law has since been changed allowing the Public Service Commission to grant hearings to petitioners before they’ve paid their bill, he said.
In September 2009, while Porter said he was busy calling and writing letters to the State Police and the Louisiana Public Service Commission trying to have his towing bill reduced, Guy’s Towing sold his vehicle, records show.
State law requires towing companies to send a final notice to vehicle owners, requesting payment 45 days after the vehicle is impounded. A company can petition the state to sell or dismantle the vehicle 15 days after the owner receives the final notice.
Porter, who’d begun doing odd jobs to earn money, said he didn’t receive any notice and had no idea his truck had been sold until July 2010, when he saw it parked on a lot on Greenwell Springs Road. In January 2011, a friend spotted the truck parked in a lot on Acadian Thruway.
While James Clary, an attorney for Guy’s Towing said the company handled Porter’s truck according to the law, Trooper Jessie Shelton cited the business in October 2010 while conducting an inspection.
According to Shelton’s report, he asked about Porter’s truck and an employee told him the company had dismantled it and sold it for scrap.
The law says towing companies can “crush or dismantle” severely damaged, unclaimed vehicles appraised at less than $500, 30 days after mailing a final notice.
But Shelton found that the paperwork needed to sell the truck for scrap was only partially filled out, had not been notarized, and lacked a certificate showing that it had been mailed to the state Office of Motor Vehicles as required by law, the report says.
After some back and forth, the Guy’s Towing employee admitted the “affidavit for crush and dismantle” hadn’t been handled properly, the report says, and Shelton cited the business for the violation.
Paulette Labostrie, Porter’s lawyer, said she believes the business didn’t want to follow the lengthy process to sell the truck legally.
“They figured Claude couldn’t pay, so they took shortcuts. They sold it and tried to certify that it was worth less than $500 so they could get rid of it,” she said “The bottom line is the state dropped the ball, denying him a hearing and Guy’s Towing violated the statute.”
Clary said Guy’s Towing “behaved at every juncture how the statute requires.”
The business forgave part of Porter’s bill, but “it was unsatisfactory to him and he wanted to bargain and bicker,” Clary said.
Several weeks passed after Porter was billed, and the business did not hear back from him, Clary said.
“The law gives us a mechanism to dispose of unclaimed cars. We followed that to the letter,” he continued. “We sympathize with Mr. Porter, but the evidence will show Guy’s followed the law.”
“I definitely feel that I haven’t gotten any justice,” Porter said last week. “I didn’t get a hearing after I was charged too much for a tow. Now my truck has been sold and I have no idea where it is.”