The U.S. Supreme Court today issued a unanimous decision that may meaningfully change how serious truck and tractor-trailer accident cases are handled in North Carolina and across the country. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, the Court held that federal law does not shield freight brokers from state-law negligent hiring claims arising from catastrophic trucking crashes. For families coping with the aftermath of a serious commercial vehicle accident, this decision may open a new path to recovery that did not clearly exist before today.
Our firm focuses on serious motor vehicle accident cases throughout North Carolina, including injury claims arising from commercial truck and tractor-trailer accidents. Cases involving large commercial vehicles are some of the most legally and factually complex matters we handle. Today’s decision affects how some of those cases will be investigated, who will be named as defendants, and where the money to compensate seriously injured victims will come from.
What the Court Decided
The case involved Shawn Montgomery, a truck driver from Missouri who was severely injured in 2017 when his parked truck was struck on the shoulder of an Illinois interstate by a tractor-trailer operated by Caribe Transport II. Mr. Montgomery’s injuries were catastrophic. He underwent multiple surgeries and ultimately lost part of his leg.
The trucking company, Caribe Transport II, had been hired by freight broker C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc., one of the largest freight brokers in North America. Mr. Montgomery sued not only the trucking company and driver, but also the freight broker, alleging negligent hiring under Illinois law. He claimed that C.H. Robinson should have known the trucking company and driver had remarkably poor safety records and only a “conditional” safety rating with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The lower courts dismissed the negligent hiring claims against the broker. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals followed other decisions that shielded freight brokers in the past and held that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) preempted such state-law claims against freight brokers. This means that even if the broker had hired a clearly dangerous trucking company, federal law shielded them from liability for negligent hiring.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision today. In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Court held that state-law negligent hiring claims against freight brokers fall within the FAAAA’s “safety exception”, which preserves the “safety regulatory authority of a State with respect to motor vehicles.” The Court rejected the argument that brokers are too disconnected from motor vehicles to fall within the safety exception. The preemption question, the Court concluded, “boils down to whether negligent-hiring claims of the type Montgomery presses are claims ‘with respect to motor vehicles.’ We conclude that they are.”
The result is that based on this federal high-court decision, serious crash victims now have a clearer path to pursue negligent hiring claims against freight brokers in state courts across the country, including here in North Carolina.
Why This Decision Matters in North Carolina Truck Accident Cases
To understand why this decision matters, you have to understand how serious truck accident cases actually work. When a tractor-trailer driver causes a catastrophic crash, the at-fault trucking company often does not have enough insurance coverage to fully compensate the victim(s). Federal regulations set minimum insurance requirements for interstate motor carriers, but those minimums (typically $750,000 to $1,000,000 for most freight loads, with higher coverage for HazMat cargo) are often woefully insufficient to compensate victims when a truck accident results in life-changing injuries or wrongful death. Catastrophic injuries from truck crashes routinely result in personal injury cases worth millions of dollars when you add lifetime medical care, lost earning capacity, and the full measure of pain and suffering endured by the crash victim. Without additional sources of recovery, the victim can be left with an insufficient settlement or a trial award and judgment they will never fully collect on.
Finding additional sources of coverage and additional responsible parties is one of the most important things a truck accident lawyer does. Sources can include the trailer owner’s policy, the shipper in some cases, separate cargo coverage, umbrella policies, and now in some cases also freight broker. Until today, the broker as a defendant has been blocked in many parts of the country by federal preemption arguments. Simply put, they were shielded due to unfavorable law. Now, in cases where the broker negligently hired a dangerous trucking company, that sheild is gone.
This is especially significant for catastrophic injury cases and wrongful death claims arising from commercial vehicle accidents. The broker is often a deep-pocketed national or international corporation with substantial insurance coverage. C.H. Robinson, for example, is a Fortune 500 company. Adding a properly liable broker as a defendant can dramatically increase the available compensation collected by truck accident victims in more serious cases.
Negligent Hiring Is Not Automatic, It Has to Be Proven
Today’s decision does not mean every freight broker is liable every time a truck they hired causes a crash. The Court clarified that the safety exception allows these claims to be pursued based on state law violations, but the plaintiff still has the legal burden to prove that the freight broker was guilty of negligent hiring or negligent retention. These are somewhat rare cases, and to prevail the victim must prove that the freight broker knew, or should have known, that the trucking company or driver presented an unreasonable risk to others on the road.
Here are examples of facts that help to establish a valid negligent hiring claim a freight broker:
- The trucking company had a poor or unsatisfactory safety rating with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- The trucking company had a high “out-of-service” rate during DOT inspections
- The trucking company had a documented history of serious accidents
- The trucking company had restrictions or limitations on its operating authority
- The driver had a poor driving record, prior crashes, prior CDL suspensions, or recent serious violations
- The driver was driving in violation of hours-of-service regulations
- The trucking company employed untrained or improperly qualified drivers
- The broker ignored its own internal vetting procedures when hiring the carrier
- The broker had a contractual obligation the the broker service agreement to verify the carrier’s safety credentials and failed to do so
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration maintains a public database called SAFER (Safety and Fitness Electronic Records) where this information is available with a simple web search to anyone, including freight brokers. There is no excuse for a broker to claim ignorance of a trucking company’s safety record. The information is sitting there, free, online, for any broker who takes a few minutes to look.
This easy access evidence makes negligent hiring against a freight broker a viable claim. The broker had access to the same safety data that any responsible person would check before entrusting a multi-ton commercial vehicle to a stranger. When the broker hired a carrier with obvious safety problems, the broker contributed to the risk that the crash would happen.
How Our Firm Will Approach Truck Crash Cases Going Forward
Our firm only handles motor vehicle accident cases in North Carolina, with substantial focus on serious commercial truck accidents and tractor-trailer crashes. Mr. Nagle is a former insurance claims adjuster and a former insurance defense attorney. He has handled commercial vehicle cases from both sides , defending trucking companies and their insurance carriers earlier in his career, and now representing crash victims in serious injury and wrongful death cases.
In light of today’s Supreme Court decision, our firm’s approach to serious truck accident cases will include a thorough investigation of the freight broker’s role in any case where a commercial carrier with safety concerns was involved. That investigation will typically include:
Identifying the broker. Many crash victims and even some law enforcement officers do not realize that a freight broker was involved in arranging the load. The bill of lading, shipping documents, and electronic logging device records often identify the broker. We make this determination early in every commercial vehicle case involving serious injuries.
Pulling the carrier’s federal safety record. This includes the FMCSA’s SAFER database, the carrier’s safety rating, recent inspection results, out-of-service rates, and crash history. If the carrier had visible and obvious safety problems before the broker hired them, that fact supports the negligent hiring and negligent retention case.
Pulling the driver’s record. A driver’s history of violations, prior accidents, hours-of-service compliance, and proper licensing and qualification all bear on whether the broker should have realized the truck driver was unsafe to transport their cargo.
Reviewing the broker’s internal vetting procedures. Most large freight brokers have internal policies for vetting carriers before hiring them. If the broker had policies but ignored them, that is powerful evidence of negligent hiring. Here we can show that the broker established safety policies as a minimum requirement to safeguard motorists, and they then failed to follow their own safety recommendations. If the broker had no meaningful policies at all, that is powerful evidence to suggest that safety wasn’t considered because profit was the only concern.
Reviewing the broker-carrier contract. Most broker-carrier agreements require the trucking company to maintain certain safety standards. When a broker hires a carrier that does not meet those standards, the broker’s own contract becomes evidence against them.
Identifying all available insurance coverage. Freight brokers carry their own liability insurance, often in substantial amounts. Identifying and pursuing that coverage in addition to the trucking company’s coverage is now a more viable strategy in negligent hiring cases.
What This Means If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in a Truck Crash in North Carolina
If you or someone you love has been seriously injured in a North Carolina commercial vehicle accident, the law that applies to your case may have just changed in your favor. Cases that previously stopped at the trucking company and driver may now reach further, including to a freight broker that should never have hired the trucking company and truck driver in the first place.
A few practical points:
Time matters. Evidence in commercial vehicle accident cases disappears quickly. Electronic logging device data and black box data can be overwritten. Vehicle inspection records can be lost. The carrier’s qualification file can be altered. Preservation letters demanding that evidence be carefully preserved need to go out within days of the crash, not months. If you have been seriously injured in a truck accident, the sooner an experienced lawyer is involved, the more evidence will be preserved. Also, early momentum results in larger settlements in these cases.
Do not talk to the trucking company’s insurance company or the broker’s insurance company. Former adjuster Carl Nagle cautions you to expect the commercial insurance claims adjuster to call, sound friendly, and that they are working solely to oppose and minimize your claims. Be aware that anything you say can and will be used to minimize your claim or shift fault to you. North Carolina’s contributory negligence rule means that even 1% of fault on your part can bar your entire recovery. Do not cooperate with claims adjusters who are paid to work against you.
Get medical care and follow through with all doctors’ recommendations. Serious truck crash injuries produce both immediate and delayed-onset injuries. Gaps in treatment will be used against you. Work with doctors, attend all medical appointments, report all symptoms and problems, and use your health insurance to fund all medical care during your recovery.
Choose your lawyer carefully. Serious commercial vehicle cases require investigation skills, knowledge of federal motor carrier regulations, experience with the discovery battles that trucking companies and brokers will wage, and the willingness to take cases to trial when the offer is not fair. Most personal injury lawyers handle a wide range of cases; few have substantial experience with truck and tractor-trailer accidents specifically.
Contact Our Firm
If you have questions about a North Carolina truck accident, commercial vehicle crash, or any serious injury or wrongful death case arising from a tractor-trailer collision, we invite you to call our office for a free consultation. There is no fee unless we recover compensation for you, and our fee on serious injury cases is 25% of settlement, lower than the one-third or more that most personal injury firms charge. We offer this lower fee in cases we accept due to our focus on large loss, complex cases. With larger recoveries, we feel that our clients deserve a larger share of the case result.
Mr. Nagle personally evaluates every truck accident case our firm takes on. With more than 30 years of experience, a background that includes work as a former claims adjuster and former insurance defense lawyer, and a focus exclusively on serious motor vehicle accident cases in North Carolina, our firm is positioned to help you understand how today’s Supreme Court decision applies to your case and what options you may have for recovery.
The decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC is a meaningful development for crash victims across North Carolina and the country. Our firm stands ready to apply it if the truck driver and trucking company involved in your collision should never have been hired.
This post is for general information and is not legal advice. Every truck accident case turns on its specific facts. If you have been injured in a commercial vehicle crash in North Carolina, talk to a licensed North Carolina attorney about your particular situation.