Avoiding liability for negligent motor carrier selection
Summary
Robinson – initially successfully – argued that negligent selection claims against brokers related to motor vehicle accidents are preempted by the provisions of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA), which is found, in relevant part, at 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(1) and provides that the “States may not enact or enforce a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier… broker, or freight forwarder with respect to the transportation of property.” The Ninth Circuit, which governs the federal district courts in Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, and Washington, reversed the trial court’s dismissal of Mr. Miller’s suit against C.H. Robinson’s appeal is significant because it leaves the state of the FAAAA’s potential preemption of negligent hiring claims against broker arising out of motor vehicle accidents unsettled in the other federal circuits. Ironically, the unsettled nature and inconsistency among the courts on this issue has created the very thing that the FAAAA intended to prevent when it was enacted in 1994 as part of continued efforts to deregulate the trucking industry. Unfortunately, what remains public within the Safety Measurement System are the specific, individual violations in five of the seven BASICs (unsafe driving, hours of service compliance, vehicle maintenance, controlled substances and alcohol and driver fitness), which leaves brokers in the impossible and unreasonable position to decipher safety data and determine a carrier’s fitness when the very governmental body maintaining oversight over all such information failed to accomplish the same.