Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II is a case about who you can sue after an auto accident. In 2017, Shawn Montgomery, a truck driver, was seriously injured when his tractor-trailer was rear-ended on the shoulder of an Illinois highway by a truck operated by Caribe Transport. Caribe had been hired to move the load by C.H. Robinson, one of the country's largest freight brokers. Montgomery sued Robinson under a state-law theory of negligent hiring, arguing that Robinson did not adequately vet Caribe before handing it the job. The question for the Court is whether the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 ("FAAAA") preempts that state-law claim.
The FAAAA preempts state laws “related to a price, route, or service” of a motor carrier or broker. But the statute also contains a clause that preserves “the safety regulatory authority of a State with respect to motor vehicles.” This case is whether a negligent-hiring suit against a broker falls into the preemption bucket or the savings clause. The Seventh Circuit held the claim was preempted. (The Ninth Circuit had earlier gone the other way.)
The model predicts the Court will reverse, though there will likely be a few dissents.
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