Trucker gets Supreme Court support for injury suit against freight broker 

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a freight broker could face liability for a 2017 tractor-trailer crash that led to the amputation of a truck driver’s lower leg.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Donald Trump appointee, penned the unanimous ruling, holding that states could regulate motor vehicle safety under an exception to federal laws for the trucking industry.

“Congress designed the safety exception ‘to ensure that its preemption of states’ economic authority over motor carriers of property [did] ‘not restrict’ the preexisting and traditional state police power over safety,’” Barrett wrote.

In the wake of Congress’ deregulatory agenda during the 1980s, lawmakers enacted the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act, which prohibited states from reimposing the same economic regulation of the trucking industry that had ended at the federal level. Lawmakers added a safety exception, however, giving states safety regulatory authority over motor vehicles.

C.H. Robinson, a freight broker, claimed the FAAAA barred Shawn Montgomery’s lawsuit for the 2017 crash. Montgomery’s tractor-trailer was parked on the side of Interstate 70 in Illinois when Yosniel Varela-Mojena drove full speed into the vehicle. Montgomery suffered severe injuries from the crash, including the amputation of his lower leg.

Caribe Transport, a carrier company that hired the driver, and Varela-Mojena had poor safety records. Months before Montgomery’s crash, Varela-Mojena was involved in another incident where he was said to be operating his truck carelessly. Caribe Transport only operated nine trucks, but it was involved in three reported crashes during a three-month stretch leading up to the accident.

Montgomery filed state-law claims against C.H. Robinson, arguing the broker should be liable for negligently hiring Caribe Transport and Varela-Mojena.

Two lower courts dismissed Montgomery’s claims under the FAAAA. When the Supreme Court reviewed his case in March, it wasn’t clear where the justices would land.

But Thursday’s short and efficient opinion gained unanimity across the bench. Barrett also noted the narrowness of the court’s holding.

“The safety exception saves only a subset of preempted claims: those involving regulations concerning motor vehicle safety,” Barrett wrote. “One can imagine many state laws that are related to motor carrier prices, routes, and services — such as how much a carrier may charge or which highways it may traverse — that have no relationship to safety.”

Still, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another Trump appointee, said he would have ruled on narrower grounds. Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, worried about cascading liability for brokers that were not explicitly authorized by Congress.

“In the real world, as the brokers forcefully respond, state tort law can be unpredictable, and the costs to brokers of litigation and insurance may be significant even when brokers prevail in lawsuits,” Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion. “Moreover, the costs of litigation and insurance, as well as the costs of brokers’ conducting more substantial inquiries into trucking companies, will cascade through the economy and be paid in part by American consumers in the form of higher prices.”

However, Kavanaugh said Congress also did not likely intend for brokers to operate in a black hole with no meaningful safety-related regulation.

“The concerns expressed by the brokers are legitimate and weighty,” Kavanaugh wrote. “But those countervailing points ultimately do not carry the day in determining how broadly to construe the vague ‘with respect to motor vehicles’ language in this act.”

The Transportation Intermediaries Association, which represents the third-party logistics and freight broker industry, said the decision imposed an impossible task on brokers by asking them to evaluate the safety of a motor carrier that the federal government has deemed safe to operate on public roads.

“This is like asking travel agents to evaluate the safety of a given airline despite the fact that the airline has been licensed to fly by the federal government,” Chris Burroughs, president and CEO of the group, said. “Moreover, since brokers do not employ motor carrier drivers directly, they do not have access to the records and data required to perform the safety functions that plaintiff lawyers contend they must.”

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