Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a man to sue a major logistics company after he lost part of his leg in a semi-trailer crash, a decision that could have ripple effects across the trucking industry.
The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously in favor of Sean Montgomery, whose parked car was struck by a speeding truck driver on an Illinois highway in 2017. He wants to sue CH Robinson, the nation’s largest freight broker, for their role in putting the driver on the road despite “dangerous red flags.”
The Supreme Court’s decision does not mean that Montgomery will necessarily win the lawsuit that the company is appealing.
His call was supported by more than two dozen US states, which said his win would help boost safety in an industry that moves billions of tons of cargo over billions of miles each year. On the other side were the Trump administration and companies like Amazon, which opposed exposing logistics companies to liability under a “patchwork” of state laws.
Montgomery’s attorneys say the truck driver had been cited for reckless driving in another crash months earlier, and that the transportation company he worked for was involved in at least three crashes in a roughly five-month period. His lawsuit said CH Robinson should share responsibility because it hired the carrier despite those problems.
The company said Montgomery’s lawsuit filed under state law should be dismissed because brokers rely on the federal government to regulate carriers, and federal law trumps state law.
But in an opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court disagreed. The judges found that Montgomery’s claims could go forward because they fell under an exception to safety regulations.
The decision could lead to increased litigation and insurance costs for freight brokers that “eventually cascade through the economy” and result in higher prices for consumers, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence joined by Justice Samuel Alito.
However, “truck safety is a matter of life and death,” Kavanaugh wrote.
This opinion reversed a Chicago Court of Appeals ruling in favor of CH Robinson, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
The Transportation Brokers Association, an industry group, said the Supreme Court’s decision is “extremely disappointing.”
“This is like asking travel agents to rate the safety of a particular airline even though the airline is licensed to fly by the federal government,” said its president and CEO, Chris Burroughs. “We are working with our members to evaluate potential next steps to mitigate the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision.