C.H. Robinson Petitions Supreme Court to Hear Negligent Hiring Case
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C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appellate court decision involving a personal injury suit accusing the freight broker of negligent hiring.
In a petition filed with the high court, C.H. Robinson said the court should reject a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that “improperly disallowed federal pre-emption, exposing freight brokers to a patchwork of state regulations.”
In court documents, C.H. Robinson argued that the motor carrier it hired was in good standing with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and that as a broker, it should not be responsible for a motor carrier’s negligence.
CH. Robinson ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 50 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.
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The dispute dates to 2016, when C.H. Robinson, a federally registered property freight broker, was hired by Costco to arrange for the transportation of certain goods from Sacramento, Calif., to Salt Lake City. C.H. Robinson then hired a federally licensed motor carrier to move the load.
However, en route to Utah in December 2016, a tractor-trailer driven by Ronel Singh traveling eastbound on Interstate 80 in Elko, Nev., lost control, crossed the median and hit a vehicle traveling westbound, seriously injuring the occupant, Allen Miller.
Miller sued C.H. Robinson, Singh, and his employer, Rheas Trans Inc. and Kuwar Singh dba RT Service, for negligence in federal district court. However, the district court approved a summary judgment in favor of C.H. Robinson, saying holding it accountable would violate federal pre-emption. But on Sept. 28, the 9th Circuit, in a 2-1 vote, reversed the district court’s dismissal, ruling that C.H. Robinson “negligently selected an unsafe motor carrier resulting in plaintiff’s serious injuries in a motor vehicle accident.”
However, in its Supreme Court petition C.H. Robinson disagreed with the 2-1 decision of the appellate court, saying the Supreme Court should not hold it responsible for the accident.
“Properly understood, the safety exception plainly excludes negligence claims against freight brokers,” Robinson said in its petition. “A freight broker does not ‘use’ a motor vehicle. The broker does not drive the vehicle, own it, or even employ a driver for it. Instead, as defined by the statute, a broker ‘arranges’ for transportation ‘by motor carrier,’ and the motor carrier does the rest.”
C.H. Robinson said the question that the Supreme Court should answer is whether a common-law state negligence claim against a freight broker is pre-empted by federal law because it has either a “direct or indirect connection to, or impact on, carrier prices, routes or services.”
Several stakeholders last month filed amicus curiae briefs in support of C.H. Robinson’s position in the case.
Properly understood, the safety exception plainly excludes negligence claims against freight brokers.
C.H. Robinson, in its Supreme Court petition
“The current unsettled state of broker civil liability for carrier selection exposes freight brokers to enormous potential liability and uncertainty in selecting carriers for a movement crossing several states’ lines, because the standards of care applied in civil negligence actions — and the specific steps brokers must take to meet them — often vary from state to state,” the Transportation Intermediaries Association wrote in a brief supporting C.H. Robinson. “Therefore, TIA and its members, and the entire logistics and supply chain management industry, have an abiding interest in the outcome of the petition before the court.”
Moseley
“Although truck accidents and liability of motor carriers are as old as the combustion engine, the concept of seeking to hold a broker liable for the actions of a motor carrier is a relatively new phenomenon,” wrote attorney Rob Moseley in a brief supporting C.H. Robinson on behalf of 12 large motor carriers. “Broker liability claims include allegations that brokers acted negligently in hiring an unsafe (albeit federally approved and insured) motor carrier or by integrating the broker’s transportation management practices too closely with the motor carrier’s operations.
“Taken to its logical conclusion, the brokerage industry becomes the insurer (or at least a subsidizer) of the transportation industry,” Moseley added.
“If this [9th Circuit] decision is allowed to stand, brokers will no longer be able to rely on federal agency standards for choosing a carrier, i.e., they will be required to go beyond choosing a carrier that has been allowed to operate by the Department of Transportation and obtained an adequate safety rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration,” DRI, an organization of defense attorneys, said in an amicus brief supporting C.H. Robinson.
Attorneys for Miller, the victim in the accident, have asked for an extension until June 18 to file their response to C.H, Robinson’s petition.
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