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The Indiana Court of Appeals awarded more than $5,000 to a truck driver after he argued his former company failed to compensate him for his last month of work.
In a unanimous three-judge panel on Wednesday, the appellate court partially reversed a 2025 Wayne County Superior Court decision and moved to award Gregory Brandon, a former truck driver for Caregan Transport Inc., $5,535.06 in unpaid wages.
Writing for the majority, Court of Appeals Judge Mary DeBoer said the trial court erred in concluding it lacked jurisdiction over the case and that it should not have allowed Caregan the opportunity to refile a response to Brandon’s motion for summary judgment because Caregan’s attorneys missed the original deadline.
Attorneys for Brandon and Caregan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the Monday opinion, Brandon started driving for Caregan, a Richmond, Indiana-based company, in January 2020.
Caregan agreed to pay Brandon $175 per night for out-of-state layovers, according to the opinion. Caregan paid Brandon weekly, but his pay varied between pay periods.
On May 11, 2020, Brandon voluntarily resigned from the company, but Caregan failed to pay him for the miles he drove between April 19 and May 10.
So, in July 2021, Brandon filed a lawsuit against Caregan under the state’s wage payment statute, Indiana Code chapter 22-2-5.
In a 2024 motion for summary judgment, Brandon argued that Caregan owed him more than $5,000 in actual unpaid damages. He also sought liquidated damages.
Last year, Wayne Superior Court Judge Gregory Horn denied Brandon’s motion for summary judgment, concluding that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear his wage payment claims and that Brandon’s mileage pay did not fit within the statutory definition of “wages.”
Brandon later appealed, arguing that the trial court not only erred in denying his motion for summary judgment but also that it should not have accepted Caregan’s summary judgment response because it was submitted after the filing deadline.
According to the opinion, Caregan was required to file a response to Brandon’s motion for summary judgment on July 19, 2024. Caregan attempted to electronically file its response, but the state’s electronic filing system rejected it because of a formatting error. Because Caregan’s counsel was on vacation for several days and did not realize the error in time, Caregan did not successfully file its response until July 22. Brandon moved to strike the late response, but Horn allowed it nonetheless.
On Monday, the Court of Appeals agreed with most of Brandon’s assertions, saying that the court should not have denied jurisdiction and that Brandon’s mileage pay does in fact fall under the Indiana statute. It awarded Brandon $5,535.06 in actual unpaid wages.
However, the court remanded the case for further proceedings to determine whether Brandon is also entitled to liquidated damages.
The case is Gregory Brandon v. Caregan Transport Inc., 25A-PL-2294
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