In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II LLC, No. 24-1238 (May 14, 2026), Justice Barrett cited Restatement of the Law Second, Torts § 411 in holding that state common-law negligent-hiring claims concerning motor vehicles were not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA), because they fell within the FAAAA’s safety exception.
In that case, a truck driver transporting a load of plastic pots struck a tractor-trailer and injured its driver. The tractor-trailer driver sued the motor carrier that employed the truck driver as well as the broker that coordinated the shipment, asserting, among other things, a state-law claim for common-law negligent hiring against the broker. The driver alleged that the broker knew or should have known that choosing the motor carrier to transport the pots via truck was reasonably likely to result in crashes that would injure others because it knew that the motor carrier had a subpar safety rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration when it hired the motor carrier. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois held that the FAAAA expressly preempted the tractor-trailer driver’s negligent-hiring claim against the broker and that the claim did not fall within the FAAAA’s safety exception. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed.
Writing for a unanimous Court to resolve a split among the Circuits, Justice Barrett reversed and remanded, holding that the tractor-trailer driver’s negligent-hiring claim was not preempted by provisions in the FAAAA that applied to state laws and regulations “related to a price, route, or service” of motor carriers or brokers “with respect to the transportation of property,” because the safety exception in the FAAAA, which stated that it would not “restrict the safety regulatory authority of a State with respect to motor vehicles,” prevented the claim from being preempted. The Court reasoned that “common-law duties and standards of care form[ed] part of a State’s authority to regulate safety,” and the common-law negligent-hiring claim described in Restatement of the Law Second, Torts § 411 imposed a duty of reasonable care in employing a contractor for work carrying a risk of physical harm. It further reasoned that a claim was “with respect to motor vehicles” if it “concerned” or “regarded” the vehicles used in transportation. Applying these principles, the Court explained that tractor-trailer driver’s claim required the broker to “exercise ordinary care in selecting a carrier” and “concerned” motor vehicles, in particular the trucks that would transport the goods. Therefore, concluded the Court, tractor-trailer driver’s negligent-hiring claim fell within the FAAAA’s safety exception, which saved it from preemption.
Read the full opinion here.