Need a Christian Perspective

Hi,

We could REALLY use some Christian advice and perspective.

We are a Christian based trucking company and we thought our prayers had been answered when a Christian driver started to work for us. Everything went well for a month but then problems started to arise which resulted in us deciding to part company with each other. When he brought the truck back to us we noticed that there was damage to the right front of the truck and he said he had hit a wall. We took the truck to get an estimate for the damage and it came to over $3000. On his last pay check we charged him the $1000 deductible which took him to a negative number but we decided not to send him a bill for the remainder.

We were very bothered by how things had unfolded. My husband was especially hurt that as a man of God another man of God thought he was trying to (for lack of a better phrase) screw him. My husband decided to write a letter to this driver saying how hurt he felt and he also made a promise to him. My husband decided that when the insurance claim was settled instead of replacing the damaged bumper which cost over $900 he would send that money as a love gift in Christ to this driver. My husband mailed this letter back to himself so it would have the post mark on it to show when we made this decision and we were going to mail it to the driver along with the love gift.

Well about a month ago we found out that this driver had filed a wage claim against us and of course we disputed it. The Labor Law Department ruled against us on a technicality. The law says that an employee must have a ‘reasonable expectation’ of the amount to be withheld and they said because we didn’t have a specific written authorization from the driver for the exact dollar amount they must rule against us even though the driver had signed a paper saying that he agreed to have deductions made for damage to equipment and was informed verbally of the amount to be withheld.

We are filing an appeal but we are feeling really hurt by this. This was supposed to be a man of God and we feel he is trying to (again for lack of a better phrase) screw us by filing a claim against us when he actually DID the damage and can’t understand why he won’t do the honorable thing.

We are now toying with the idea of taking this driver to small claims court, not because we want the money (we wouldn’t collect on the money), but just to get the judgment. We want him to take responsibility for what he did and do what we feel is the right thing as a Christian. I know that if I was to use somebody else’s vehicle and cause extensive damage I wouldn’t expect the owner to pay for my negligence but maybe that’s just me.

My husband is having a really hard time as he expected God to move on this and let justice prevail. Especially since God knew our intentions of giving the driver the $900 not because he is entitled to the money but as a love gift in Christ between two godly men.

I guess I’m asking, what would you do in our situation? I know we are not supposed to sue our fellow brother in Christ but is it wrong of us to file in small claims court just to get a judgment to show him he was wrong? Are we unjust in what we did?

Any advice or comments are welcome.

Sarah

Thanks everyone for you input.

E-beth said:

If I understand it correctly, he got a check for zero dollars because the deductible was taken out all at once... If that is so, I understand why he filed. The man holds a job for a reason, and that is to get money to support himself or his family if he has one. I am sure he has bills to pay. Suddenly he is supposed to survive until the next payday on nothing. To an employee, it looks like the employer doesn't give a rip about him or his real-life obligations. It seems like all they care about is their equipment. If he wasn't expecting not getting a check, and there was no agreement that the deductible would be taken out all at once, then he has a legitimate claim.

It seems to me that the situation could have been avoided if you had taken it out a little at a time, or had come to some agreement with him about how he could best pay it back.

As far as court goes, it doesn't seem very loving to take someone to court over proving who is "right". Maybe the best thing to do is to try to make good with the driver and use the experience to implement a better working solution to avoid this from happening in the future.

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The reason the deductible was taken all at once was because he quit. He called the dispatcher 3 weeks before he came in from his last trip and told her he had scratched the bumper. It wasn't until after he left our premises after telling us he quit that we went and looked at the damage and saw how extensive it was. If he had stayed on with us of course we would have come up with a payment plan. We are very reasonable people and have always done our best to treat our employees the way we would like them to treat us and we had made many allowances for this driver involving company phone usage, company funds, etc..

I think regarding whether we should have taken the deductible all at once or not has no bearing on whether it's a legitiment claim. Yes, it would not have been very loving but it would not negate the fact that he did the damge and was responsible. Right now he has us on a technicality. The driver signed a statment that says we are allowed to deduct for any damage to equipment. The Labor Department is saying that because the the statment he signed doesn't have a specific dollar amount the driver was not given a 'reasonable expectation' of the amount to be withheld even though he was informed verbally of the amount. Even the Labor Department allows for a deduction to be made for damage to equipment but they say we needed to have made the driver sign a statement that reads, "I, (Name), give (Company) authorization to deduct (Amount) from my pay check for (Reason)." That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me as anyone who would file an unjust wage claim like this is definitely not going to sign a paper like that.

No, court is not a very loving way to act but the consquences of this claim are devestating to our business. The truck is our sole source of income at the moment and we are already in the red. If we lose the appeal the Labor Department will make us file a bond of their determination and that would just flat out put us into bankruptcy. So although I understand he has a wife and family to support so do we. And although the driver doesn't know this my husband was going to give him $900 instead of replacing the bumper (the other work MUST be done in order not to cause more damage) as a love gift in Christ. My husband wrote a letter and mailed it back to himself so that the post mark was on it to show his intentions to this driver so when we finally got the insurance claim settled the driver would know that it had always been my husband's intention to give him this gift.

Sarah

desi said:

If he quit you should probably thank God your not still dealing with him as an employee, or worse firing him and paying him unemployment. Move on and eat your losses without worrying about it.

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It's extremely hard to move on and eat your losses when you are going to be forced to write a check with no money in the bank to cover it.

desi said:

Just be sure to check references better next time..

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We did check references thoroughly and there was no indication things would end the way they did.

desi said:

Being a Christian is no substitute for exercising discretion and God gave us all enough free will to self righteously 'screw' each other to our hearts content.

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You're right, God gave us free will. I just think it's sad that we have to watch ourselves incase our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ decide to stab us in the back while we're out facing the rest of the world.

The real issue here is how do we (my family) as Christians handle another Christian trying to do us harm? Scripture says to turn the other cheek and to give the coat off your back and God knows we had decided to do that when we made the decision to give him the gift of $900. Do we now just stand back and let this driver put us out on the street while he takes what isn't his? How do we handle this according to God's word? Does the word of God not allow us to defend ourselves?

Sarah

desi said:

Whoa, it never occurred to me that a thousand dollars was enough to wreck your business. The business owners I know are much better off. As for handling grievances with other Christians, the Bible says when we have a problem with a fellow Christian we should go to them with it first. If that fails we are to take it to the church elders.

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This is exactly what this driver thinks and has as much said so that because we are a business we must be able to afford it and to just write off the cost. We are struggling just to make the bills and we just flat out can't afford to pay the insurance deductible, have the damage to our truck, the associated higher premiums because of the insurance claim, and now the associated costs with having this wage claim against us. We can't afford to NOT repair the truck either as the damage if left will cause further and more expensive damage (Fiber glass truck hood that's cracked in a bunch of places).

My husband and I have pretty much decided that we will call this driver's father-in-law who is a pastor of a church and try to arrange a meeting to discuss the situation. We are taking a chance by asking his father-in-law to be the mediator but we are hoping that he will act like the man of God he is supposed to be and be fair. And we hope that this driver will not harden his heart the way he did the last time we tried to talk to him about things when he quit.

We don't want to sue this man and we are trying to do the godly thing but it is very hard when things go from bad to worse and we could easily win a judgment of over $3000 which would help us pay for things like the tax lein that we have on the truck for the taxes we can't afford to pay, or we could use it to pay for the diesel we need to run the truck which is over $500 every other day, or we could use it to fix the hole between our bedroom and bathroom wall of our four room house where the faucet blow out, or to pay our credits cards down because we had to put our bills on credit cards because there was no money in the bank to write a check. (LOL etc etc etc... the faucet was sorta my fault ) <-- husband added. The only reason the thought of suing came into our head was to try and get him to drop his claim. If we lose this appeal the Labor Department says they may make us have to file a bond of their determination which would pretty much spell the end for our business and our only current source of income would be gone and we'd still have all the bills we can't pay.

We are trying very hard to look at our blessings and are thankful for what we do have as there are many people worse off than us. I just keep praying for God's will to be done and I know we will make it out the other side but it sure is hard being in the middle of it.

Sarah