Father & Son Moving Company Agrees to Resolve Allegations of Violations of Civilian Relief Law | USAO-MA

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BOSTON The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts today announced an agreement with PRTaylor Enterprises LLC, a company doing business as Father & Son Moving & Storage (Father & Son), to resolve the allegations that she violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) by failing to obtain a court order before auctioning off the contents of a US Air Force technical sergeant’s storage units while he was deployed abroad.

According to the complaint, the property of the technical sergeants sold by Father & Son included military equipment and memorabilia belonging to a cousin killed in military action in Afghanistan, his grandfather’s military service medals and all of his furniture. and personal photographs.

The SCRA provides financial and housing protections and benefits to military personnel while they are in military service. One of the protections of the SCRA requires that anyone with a lien on a military’s property obtain a court order before auctioning, selling or disposing of that property. Under the agreement, Father & Son will pay the Tech Sergeant $ 60,000 in damages and the United States a civil fine of $ 5,000. Father and son must also implement some new policies to prevent future SCRA violations.

It is wrong to auction the goods of a military member who serves our country overseas, said Acting US Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell. The law protects the military from this kind of mistreatment of which they have more important things to fear when they are abroad at the risk of their life to protect our nation. We will aggressively uphold the rights of our military and hold those who violate SCRA to account.

The Justice Department is committed to vigorously enforcing the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to protect the rights of people who sacrifice so much for their country, said Deputy Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. This regulation should send a clear message to all operators of storage facilities that they are prohibited by federal law from auctioning the property of a service member without a court order.

Acting US attorney Mendell and AAG Clarke made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was also provided by the United States Department of Transportation, the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Torey B. Cummings of the Mendells Civil Rights Unit and Trial Lawyer Tanya Kirwan of the Housing and Civil Law Enforcement Section of the Civil Rights Division discussed the ‘case.

The Civil Rights Unit of the United States Prosecutor’s Office was established in 2016 with a mission to strengthen civil rights enforcement at the federal level. For more information on the Office’s civil rights efforts, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-ma/civil-rights.

This lawsuit results from a referral to the Department of Justice of the US Air Force. Departmental enforcement of the SCRA is led by the Civil Rights Division, Housing, and Civil Law Enforcement Section, in partnership with all 93 U.S. prosecutors’ offices, including the District of Massachusetts. Since 2011, the department has obtained more than $ 474 million in monetary relief for more than 120,000 military personnel through the application of the SCRA. For more information on the departments’ SCRA enforcement efforts, please visit www.servicemembers.gov.

Service members and their dependents who believe their rights under the SCRA may have been violated should contact the nearest Armed Forces Legal Assistance Program office. Offices can be found at legalassistance.law.af.mil.

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