Date: Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Source: Splash 24/7
The City of Oakland and the Port of Oakland filed a lawsuit against the owner-operator truckers that had protested California’s AB5 contractor law at the port the week before. The suit, filed at the Superior Court of California, includes an application for a temporary restraining order to prevent what it refers to as the protestors’ “illegal activities.”
The port engaged a private investigator to report on the protestors’ behavior and identify some of them; those are the individuals named as defendants in the suit. (The lawsuit also targets 2,000 “Does,” unnamed defendants [as in John Doe.]) The “illegal activities” he observed include walking other than on the left edge of the roadway, failure to yield, stopping or delaying traffic in a marked or unmarked crosswalk, trespassing and more.
The suit also claims that the truckers undertook “a carefully planned and orchestrated campaign intended to block traffic, create life safety hazards for persons intending to work and/or do business” at the port and “prevent vital interstate and international commerce from being conducted.”
The port is seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction to prevent activities that obstruct traffic and block access to the port.
On Monday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Delbert Gee considered the temporary restraining order but did not issue his ruling.