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Browns owner Jimmy Haslam fighting deposition order in Pilot Flying J civil suit
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is fighting a court order for him to testify in a civil lawsuit against the Pilot Flying J truck stop chain owned by Haslam and his brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
An attorney for Jimmy Haslam filed a motion Friday after an Alabama judge ordered his deposition in the lawsuit by Wright Transportation, The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/1r6vMh6) reported.
The brief filed by attorney Joseph McCorkle Jr. said the deposition petition is "riddled with factual and procedural errors" and is a "thinly-disguised effort to obtain discovery from [Haslam] to be used in the litigation against him, wherever it ends up."
According to the judge's order, Jimmy Haslam is expected to be subpoenaed to appear for deposition May 11 in Knoxville.
The deposition says in part that " ... it appears to this Court that the just determination of the issues therein presented requires that the deposition testimony of James A. Haslam III be taken."
Mobile, Alabama-based Wright Transportation is one of several companies suing Knoxville-based Pilot Flying J in connection with a scheme to cheat customers out of promised discounts and rebates.
Ten former Pilot employees have pleaded guilty in the scheme, and the company's former president and several others face trial next year in federal court.
The scheme came to light after federal agents raided the company's headquarters in April 2013. The company previously paid a $92 million penalty to the government and another $85 million to settle claims with 5,500 trucking companies in a class-action lawsuit.
Jimmy Haslam has denied any previous knowledge of the alleged fraud or any personal wrongdoing.
Pilot Flying J is the nation's largest diesel retailer with annual revenues of around $30 billion.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].