CHICAGO - U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle correctly ruled that Shawn Montgomery of Missouri can’t sue C.H. Robinson Company of Minnesota for arranging the trip of a truck that hit his truck, Seventh Circuit appellate judges ruled on Jan. 2.
The appeals court found Yandle correctly followed their court’s precedent from 2023 that a freight broker acts as contractor rather than agent.
Judges rejected arguments from Montgomery’s counsel Alan Pirtle of Brown and Crouppen in St. Louis for overturning the precedent.
Circuit Judge Michael Scudder wrote, “These are not compelling reasons to revisit a case we decided only one year ago.”
Circuit judges Amy St. Eve and Thomas Kirsch concurred.
Montgomery’s suit remains active against truck owner Caribe Transport of Florida and driver Yosniel Varela-Mojena of New Jersey.
Caribe and Robinson agreed in 2017 that Caribe would carry a load of plastic pots from Ohio to Arkansas and Texas for $2,600.
Verela-Mojena took the job and a collision occurred on Interstate 70 in Cumberland County.
Montgomery lost a leg among other injuries.
He sued driver, owner and broker in 2019.
Yandle set trial in 2024 but in 2023 Seventh Circuit judges decided in a similar case that the widow of a crash victim could not sue a trucker’s broker.
Robinson moved for summary judgment in keeping with the decision and Yandle granted it.
She found Caribe worked with more than 200 brokers across the country.
She found Robinson didn’t train Caribe’s drivers or review their logbooks.
She found drivers didn’t wear Robinson uniforms and the name didn’t appear on trucks.
She found Robinson didn’t provide tools or pay for fuel, tolls, maintenance or repairs.
She found Caribe owner Luis Lopez swore that load confirmations didn’t have driving directions and routes weren’t up to Robinson.
She found Varela-Mojena notified Lopez of the accident and Lopez notified Robinson.
She defined it as an arm’s length relationship.
She directed the clerk to enter judgment at the close of the case.
Six days later, Pirtle advised Yandle that the plaintiff in the earlier case petitioned the Supreme Court for review.
On Dec. 4, 2023, both Montgomery and Caribe moved for entry of judgment.
“Months ago the insurer for the carrier and driver made an offer to plaintiff of their policy limits of $1 million," Pirtle wrote.
“Contemporaneous with that offer counsel for the carrier and driver produced to plaintiff’s counsel proof of the minimal assets held by those defendants.
“Plaintiff has presented expert and other evidence to support economic damages alone exceeding $3 million.
“Consequently, any award of judgment against the non Robinson defendants at trial is highly unlikely to result in full satisfaction of plaintiff’s claims.”
He claimed accepting $1 million could result in release of the claim against Robinson.
Caribe counsel Lawrence Hall of Chartwell Law in St. Louis claimed an offer of $965,560 in available policy limits remained open.
“Caribe defendants have produced sufficient evidence showing they have limited means to satisfy any judgment beyond the available insurance coverage," Hall wrote.
In Washington last January, Supreme Court Justices reviewed the Seventh Circuit decision in conference and denied review three days later.
Yandle granted judgment to Robinson three days after that but ordered the clerk not to close the matter until further order.
Montgomery appealed and Robinson prevailed.
Scudder found Illinois courts declined to find an agency relationship when a company hires an independent driver to deliver a load but does not control the manner of delivery.
He found Montgomery’s claim that Robinson required information about who hauled loads, their hours and their locations highlighted Robinson’s lack of control.
“Robinson needed this information to estimate a load’s delivery time and coordinate its delivery, not to exercise control," Scudder wrote.
“The fact that Robinson tracked the percentage of Caribe’s on time deliveries and assigned it a performance score also fails to establish agency.”
He found the agreement between Caribe and Robinson specified that Caribe was an independent contractor and not an agent.
Julie Meyer, Matthew Reh and Paul Brusati of Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis County represent Robinson.
Joseph Good and Matthew Kouri of Chartwell Law represent Caribe in association with Hall.