The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Shawn Montgomery to sue C.H. Robinson, the country’s largest freight broker by size, after he lost part of his leg in a semi tractor-trailer crash. The unanimous ruling gives Montgomery a path to pursue a company he says helped put a speeding truck driver on the road despite what he called “serious red flags.”
Who Pays When the System Fails
Montgomery’s parked vehicle was hit by a speeding truck driver on an Illinois highway in 2017, leaving him with part of his leg gone. He says he wants to sue C.H. Robinson over its role in putting the driver on the road. The decision does not mean Montgomery will necessarily win the lawsuit, which the company is contesting, but it opens the door to increased liability for freight brokers, a key part of the industry.
Montgomery’s lawyers said the trucker had been cited for careless driving in another crash months earlier and that the carrier he worked for had been involved with at least three crashes in a span of about five months. Montgomery’s lawsuit said C.H. Robinson should share liability because it hired the carrier despite those problems. His appeal was backed by more than two dozen states, which said a win for him would help bolster safety in an industry that moves billions of tons of goods across billions of miles every year.
What the Brokers Call “Order”
The Trump administration and companies such as Amazon argued that letting the suit go forward would expose logistics companies to liability under a “patchwork” of state laws. The Transportation Intermediaries Association called the decision “deeply disappointing.” Its president and CEO, Chris Burroughs, said, “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.” He added, “We are working with our members to assess potential next steps to mitigate the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision.”
The company argued the suit, filed under state law, had to be tossed out because brokers rely on the federal government to regulate carriers and federal law trumps state law. But in an opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court disagreed and found Montgomery’s claims can move forward because they fall under an exception for safety regulations. The high court overturned a lower-court ruling in the company’s favor.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence joined by Justice Samuel Alito that the decision could increase insurance costs for freight brokers that eventually “cascade through the economy” and result in higher prices for consumers, but he also wrote that “truck safety is a matter of life and death.” C.H. Robinson, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, pointed to another part of his concurrence, where he said the decision does not mean brokers will be “routinely subject” to lawsuits.
The Safety System They Say Exists
Dorothy Capers, the company’s chief legal officer, said, “We will keep working with policymakers, advocates, carriers, our customers, and others across the industry to strengthen the national safety system and advance practices that reduce accidents on America’s roads.” That is the language of managed reform: the same industry, the same policymakers, the same apparatus, all promising to “strengthen” a system that already left a man with part of his leg missing.
Brian Watt, who runs a freight logistics company in Florida, said the ruling could have far-reaching effects if brokers can be held liable for the actions of the trucking companies they hire. He said brokers will now have to focus more on the safety records of the truckers they contract with to haul all kinds of goods, including hazardous materials, instead of just looking for the cheapest and fastest option. Watt said in a post on LinkedIn, “More than 28,000 federally licensed brokers currently operate in the United States with virtually no meaningful federal safety oversight regarding how they select carriers.” He said there are tougher standards for brokers that arrange shipments out of ports and on railroads, but that highway shipments face fewer restrictions.
The Transportation Department has been cracking down on the trucking industry over the past year by trying to force unqualified drivers, trucking companies and schools out of the industry. The ruling lands in that wider push, but the basic arrangement remains the same: freight moves through a giant network of brokers, carriers, regulators and courts, while the people on the road absorb the consequences when the chain breaks.
For Montgomery, the case now moves forward. For the freight industry, the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling means the people who profit from moving goods may have to answer for the safety choices made along the way.