Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, Docket No. 24-1238

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A truck driver who lost his leg in a crash just won a major victory for safety at the Supreme Court. The justices unanimously ruled that companies arranging freight shipments can be held legally responsible if they carelessly hire unsafe carriers. The decision overturns a legal shield that had protected brokers from lawsuits in much of the country and opens the door for injured workers and accident victims to seek damages from the middlemen who arrange trucking jobs.

What Happened

Shawn Montgomery was a truck driver whose parked rig was struck by another truck, resulting in the amputation of his leg. The driver who hit him worked for Caribe Transport II, a carrier hired through C.H. Robinson Worldwide, a major transportation broker. Montgomery discovered that C.H. Robinson had hired Caribe despite federal safety inspectors flagging serious problems with the company's driver training, vehicle maintenance, and crash history. He sued C.H. Robinson for negligent hiring, arguing the broker should have known better.

The case hinged on a 1994 federal law designed to create a national trucking market by preventing states from imposing conflicting rules on prices, routes, and services. But the law included an exception: states could still enforce safety rules. The question was whether that safety exception protected Montgomery's lawsuit or whether it was blocked by the broader deregulation rule.

The Arguments

Montgomery's lawyers said the safety exception clearly covered negligent hiring claims. If a broker carelessly selects an unsafe carrier and someone gets hurt, that directly affects public safety on the roads. They also pointed out that brokers could easily protect themselves by doing basic background checks before hiring carriers.

C.H. Robinson and the trucking industry countered with three main concerns. First, they argued that allowing these lawsuits would essentially eliminate the entire deregulation law. Second, they worried about the practical fallout: more litigation, higher insurance costs, and ultimately higher prices for consumers. Third, they highlighted what they saw as an absurd inconsistency in the law: under Montgomery's reading, a broker could be sued for arranging a long-distance shipment but not a local one.

The Court's Decision

Justice Barrett, writing for all nine justices, sided with Montgomery. The Court found that state negligence laws count as safety authority and that negligent hiring claims clearly "concern" motor vehicle safety. When a broker carelessly picks an unsafe carrier, the trucks that result are directly affected. The Court rejected all of C.H. Robinson's arguments, noting that many preempted state laws like price controls have nothing to do with safety, so the safety exception would not swallow the entire rule.

The Court acknowledged the inconsistency between interstate and intrastate rules but refused to rewrite the law to fix it. Sometimes statutes contain puzzles, the justices said, and courts should not invent solutions.

A Closer Look From One Justice

Justice Kavanaugh agreed with the outcome but expressed real concerns about the industry's position. He noted that federal law requires carriers to carry insurance but imposes no such requirement on brokers, which might suggest Congress never intended brokers to face lawsuits. He also called the interstate-intrastate inconsistency "rather glaring."

Yet Kavanaugh ultimately sided with the majority because the deregulation law was about economics, not safety. Federal law imposes no meaningful safety obligations on brokers when selecting carriers, making it hard to believe Congress wanted to leave them completely unaccountable. He also noted that standard legal requirements, like proving the broker's negligence actually caused the harm, would protect brokers from frivolous suits. Kavanaugh suggested Congress could address industry concerns directly if needed.

Trucking Brokers Can Be Sued for Negligent Hiring

The ruling affects roughly 28,000 brokers who arrange about one-third of all freight shipments nationwide. Before this decision, brokers in certain parts of the country were largely protected from negligent hiring lawsuits. That protection is now gone everywhere.

The decision reflects a straightforward principle: companies that hire contractors to do dangerous work have a responsibility to check whether those contractors are safe. If they do not, and someone gets hurt, they can be held accountable. The law still protects brokers in important ways. Plaintiffs must prove the broker's negligence actually caused the injury, and brokers can defend themselves by showing they acted reasonably. But the days of blanket immunity are over.