A missed filing deadline and a wage-classification fight drove this outcome
An Indiana appeals court ruled on July 29, 2026, that a former truck driver is owed $5,535.06 in unpaid wages, with lessons for payroll teams.
The driver worked for Caregan Transport Inc. from January 2020 until he voluntarily quit in May 2020. Caregan paid him forty cents per mile driven, plus $175.00 per night for out-of-state layovers. After he left, the company did not pay him for four weeks of work.
He sued under Indiana's Wage Payment Statute, which governs both how often and how fully an employer must pay. He sought $5,535.06 in actual wages, plus liquidated damages, interest, and attorney's fees.
The trial court denied his motion and, on its own, decided it no longer had jurisdiction. Its reasoning: mileage pay was not a wage, so the matter belonged before the state labor department. The appeals court disagreed on both counts.
It held that pay tied to miles driven is a wage. Compensation qualifies, the court said, as long as it is tied to "the labor or service rendered," whether calculated "on a time, task, piece, or commission basis." Pay that varies from week to week does not lose that status, the court noted.
Caregan had argued the driver looked "more akin to an independent contractor than an employee." The court rejected that, in part because the company had already admitted in its answer that he was an employee - an admission the court said was binding.
There was also a filing wrinkle. Caregan missed the deadline to oppose summary judgment after an e-filing upload failed and its lawyer left on vacation without confirming the documents went through. The appeals court held those late materials should have been stricken, applying a bright-line rule that late summary judgment responses cannot be considered.
The driver did not prevail on everything. The court affirmed the denial of liquidated damages, which can double a wage award, because he failed to show the employer acted in bad faith. Caregan pointed to the driver's own failure to turn in bills of lading as the reason his pay was delayed.
The court reversed the wage ruling, affirmed the liquidated damages denial, and sent the case back for further proceedings. The decision is not necessarily final, and post-decision steps such as rehearing were not addressed in the opinion.
