Supreme Court Case May Have Broader Trucking Implications
In December 2017, a commercial vehicle rammed into a legally-parked truck at full speed, severely injuring occupant Shawn Montgomery. Needless to say, he sued the driver and the company he drove for, but he also sued the third-party brokerage firm that hired the transport company and driver, stating that the broker, C.H. Robinson, should have known better than to hire the trucking company in question. Is C.H. Robinson liable for damages? Different states have different answers, but an upcoming Supreme Court case may result in a unified federal decision.
Details
The name of the case is Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II et al., and the question lies wherein whether or not the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (F4A) applies to questions of tort law and liability. Some states and courts have deemed brokers liable and other have not, so it is up to the Supreme Court to make the decision once and for all.
There are two questions in play:
- Can the federal government and F4A apply its weight to determining the liability of brokers whose hired transport companies get into collisions?
- If the answer to one is yes, are brokers held liable or not liable?
If the answer to both is yes, it will lead to increased insurance premiums for brokers and some brokers being taken out of business, lowering the supply of brokerage firms and raising the cost of shipped goods due to basic economics. If the answer to question two is negative, then brokerages may be less likely to perform due diligence on hiring trucking companies for safety purposes, including those pesky chameleon carriers.
Conclusion
As with every court case, it will likely be some time before we get a definitive answer from the Supreme Court, but this information is something to keep in your back pocket as arguments are made and deliberations are performed. Likely, we will write a followup article regarding this case once a decision has been made.
This is not the first time the Supreme Court has heard a case that directly impacted the trucking industry–it heard one in January 2022 as to if COVID vaccines or weekly tests were required for businesses with 100 employees or more (namely, team drivers)–and it likely will not be the last.
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