Dec. 6—OXFORD — An Alabama trucking company has filed a class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo alleging that the bank has impounded their trailers and goods as part of the United Furniture Industries implosion two weeks ago.

UFI sent out texts and emails the night of Nov. 21 firing all of its employees, more than 2,700 people. At the same time, it told all of its truck drivers to not deliver their loads but return to the nearest United facility.

Atkins Trucking and Booneville attorney Casey Lott say United used backhauling to prevent trucks from returning to the factory empty. Because of that, not every trailer that was returned to a United facility contained furniture.

Lott said United was heavily leveraged by Wells Fargo. To protect their interests, the bank hired a security group to not only lock up the facilities but also prevent people from recovering their trailers and/or cargo.

"Wells Fargo has an interest here, but they don't have an interest in every trailer," Lott aid. "They are holding hundreds of trailers hostage, trailers and goods they don't own. Wells Fargo secured the facility and won't return the property to the rightful owners."

While some of the backhauling was coordinated through large trucking firms, many were independent contractors or owner-operators.

"When you're talking about someone who only have a handful of trucks and trailers, impounding one or two trailers could be devastating," Lott said. "They are frantic trying to get their loads back."

He said the bank should have someone to unload all of the returning trailers. Any furniture could have been locked securely inside the United warehouse and all the other trailers could be released.

The lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen is not looking for monetary damages. Instead, the suit only asks for injunctive release.

"We are seeking an order form the court to force them to release other people's property," Lott said.

Lott hopes to have the case certified as a class action to allow the owners of other trailers and loads to join the suit and recover their property.

This is the fourth lawsuit to be filed in Aberdeen's federal court following the demise of United. A Texas trucking company sued United and its trucking subsidiary over a 22-ton load of copper wire that was supposed to be delivered to Starkville the day after United fired all of its employees. It has been impounded for the last two weeks.

The other three lawsuits allege the furniture company violated the federal WARN Act when it fired all its employees without notice. The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires companies with more than 100 employees to give 60 days advance written notice before layoffs or shutting down.

william.moore@djournal.com