Another suit filed as attorneys look to consolidate Pilot cases

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Updated Jun 24, 2013

pilot 1.35.35 PMPaul Otto, an owner-operator from Wisner, Nebraska, is the latest in a line of plaintiffs to file a class-action lawsuit against truck stop chain Pilot Flying J in the wake of a federal allegations against the company that it defrauded trucking companies out of millions of dollars in owed fuel rebates.

However, according to a report from Cleveland.com, a court in Ohio may hear in July a request by one attorney to consolidate the cases and have them treated as one consolidated class-action suit in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland.com’s report says that  the attorney’s for Ohio Auto Delivery — a carrier that filed a lawsuit against Pilot earlier this month — filed the request with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation last week.

Otto’s lawsuit, like the other ten or so class-action suits that have been filed against Pilot, bases its evidence on a federal affidavit unsealed April 18 and used by the FBI to obtain a search warrant to raid Pilot headquarters April 15.

Also like the other lawsuits, it is suing on counts of fraud, deceptive trade practices, unjust enrichment, conversion, breach of contract and fraudulent concealment, and Otto is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, barring of continuation of the rebate withholding and attorney’s fees. Otto also asks for a jury trial.

Click here to see the lawsuit documents filed in a court in Nashville.