Supreme Court Lets Broker Negligence Suit Stand

The Supreme Court has denied a petition from logistics firm C.H. Robinson, preserving a lower-court ruling that permits negligence claims against brokers in some cases. 

The court made the announcement in its July 27 summary dispositions list. As is common with such denials, no reason was given for the rejection.  

With the Supreme Court’s dismissal, negligence claims against C.H. Robinson can continue, with the broker being held liable for the negligent conduct of carriers it contracts with, under a 2020 opinion from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

The case involves a lawsuit filed by Allen Miller against C.H. Robinson in 2017. A truck hired by C.H. Robinson to haul freight for Costco struck Miller, leaving him a quadriplegic. In his lawsuit, Miller named C.H. Robinson as a defendant, claiming the broker breached its “duty to select a competent contractor to transport.” 

A federal district court in Nevada dismissed the case in favor of C.H. Robinson, concluding that the claim “sets out to reshape the level of service a broker must provide in selecting a motor carrier to transport property” and that Miller’s claims are preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (F4A). 

F4A prohibits states from enacting any law, regulation or other provision “having the force and effect of law related to a price, route or service of any motor carrier … or broker.” 

However, F4A has a safety exception, which states that it “shall not restrict the safety regulatory authority of a state with respect to motor vehicles.”  

The Ninth Circuit held that this exception applies in this case because “negligence claims against brokers, to the extent that they arise out of motor vehicle accidents, have the requisite ‘connection with’ motor vehicles.”