Transport Labor Contract/Leasing, Inc. & Subsidiaries - Page 52

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          hiring each driver-employee; (2) without exception, the trucking            
          company client made the decision to terminate any driver-employee           
          whom TLC leased to it; and (3) while TLC was leasing a driver-              
          employee to a trucking company client, TLC had no right to lease            
          that driver-employee to another trucking company client and                 
          thereby assign additional projects to such driver-employee.                 
               On the record before us, we find that respondent impeached             
          the foregoing testimony of Mr. Ankerfelt.  Respondent introduced            
          into the record an affidavit (Mr. Ankerfelt’s affidavit) that Mr.           
          Ankerfelt made under oath in Hix v. Minn. Workers’ Comp. Assigned           
          Risk Plan, 520 N.W.2d 497 (1994).40  In that affidavit, Mr.                 
          Ankerfelt swore under oath that:                                            
               TLC has sole authority to determine the assignment of a                
               driver.                                                                
                    * * * TLC retains the sole right to discharge and                 
               fire any of its drivers-employees [sic].  When a lessee                
               [trucking company client] no longer desires to lease a                 
               TLC driver-employee, the TLC driver-employee returns to                
               TLC for assignment to another lessee.                                  
               Not only did respondent impeach Mr. Ankerfelt’s testimony              
          with Mr. Ankerfelt’s affidavit, respondent also raised other                
          questions about the reliability of Mr. Ankerfelt’s testimony that           
          TLC exercised only an advisory role in hiring each driver-em-               


               40Joe Hix was one of TLC’s trucking company clients.  The              
          court in Hix v. Minn. Workers’ Comp. Assigned Risk Plan, 520                
          N.W.2d 497, 508 (1994), held that, for purposes of Minnesota’s              
          workers’ compensation laws, Joe Hix was not the employer of any             
          driver-employee whom he leased from TLC.                                    




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