Supreme Court says man who lost leg can sue major logistics company over trucker crash

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed a man to sue a major logistics company after he lost part of his leg in a semi tractor-trailer crash, a decision that could have ripple effects across the trucking industry.

The high court ruled unanimously in favor of Shawn Montgomery, whose parked vehicle was hit by a speeding truck driver on an Illinois highway in 2017. He wants to sue C.H. Robinson, the country’s largest freight broker, over their role in putting the driver on the road despite “serious red flags.”

The Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t mean Montgomery will necessarily win the lawsuit, which is contested by the company.

His appeal was backed by more than two dozen U.S states who 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. On the other side was the Trump administration and companies like Amazon, who argued against exposing logistics companies to liability under a “patchwork” of state laws.

Montgomery’s attorneys say the trucker had been cited for careless driving in another crash months earlier, and the carrier that he worked for had been involved with at least three crashes in a span of about five months. His lawsuit said C.H. Robinson should share liability because it hired the carrier despite those problems.

The company argued that Montgomery’s suit filed under state law has to be tossed out because brokers rely on the federal government to regulate carriers, and federal law trumps state law.

But in an opinion authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court disagreed. The justices found Montgomery’s claims can move forward because they fall under an exception for safety regulations.

The decision could increase litigation and insurance costs for freight brokers that eventually “cascade through the economy” and result in higher prices for consumers, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence joined by Justice Samuel Alito.

Still, “truck safety is a matter of life and death,” Kavanaugh wrote.

The opinion overturned a ruling from a Chicago-based appeals court in favor of C.H. Robinson, which is based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

The Transportation Intermediaries Association, an industry group, said the high court’s decision is “deeply disappointing.”

“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,” said its president and CEO, Chris Burroughs. “We are working with our members to assess potential next steps to mitigate the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision.