This Littler Lightbulb highlights some of the more significant employment and labor law developments in the federal courts of appeal in the last month.
Supreme Court Holds FAAA Does Not Preempt Negligent Hiring Claims Against Freight Brokers
In Montgomery, v. Caribe Transport II LLC, 608 U. S. ___ (May 14, 2026), the Supreme Court addressed the scope of the safety exception provision of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA), which provides that the FAAA A “shall not restrict the safety regulatory authority of a State with respect to motor vehicles.” The case involved a trucking accident following which the plaintiff filed suit in federal court alleging, among other things, that the freight broker that had coordinated the shipment negligently hired the driver and the trucking company.
The federal district court held that the FAAAA expressly preempted the negligent hiring claim against the broker and the claim did not fall within the safety exception. The Seventh Circuit affirmed and the plaintiff appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted certiorari, noting that the appellate courts are divided as to whether the FAAAA’s safety exception permits negligent hiring claims against brokers. The Supreme Court reversed the Seventh Circuit holding that negligent hiring claims fall within the FAAAA’s safety exception. As Justice Kavanaugh acknowledged in his concurrence, “how expansively to read the key statutory phrase ‘with respect to motor vehicles’ … is...
The relator managed to connect alleged upcode overcharging to the submission of bills to the government that would have necessarily contained inflated charges. A qui tam relator who did not plead ...