Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Ass'n v. United States Department of Transportation

879 F.3d 339
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedJanuary 12, 2018
Docket16-5355
StatusPublished
Cited by57 cases

This text of 879 F.3d 339 (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Ass'n v. United States Department of Transportation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Ass'n v. United States Department of Transportation, 879 F.3d 339 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

Tatel, Circuit Judge:

In Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, — U.S. —, 136 S.Ct. 1540, 194 L.Ed.2d 635 (2016), the Supreme Court held that “Article III standing requires a concrete injury even in the context of a statutory violation,” id. at 1549. In this case, several commercial truck drivers and their industry association claim they were injured by the Department of Transportation’s violation of its statutory obligation to ensure the accuracy of a database containing driver-safety information. As explained in this opinion, we agree with the district court that, under Spokeo, the asserted injury is, by itself, insufficiently concrete to confer Article III standing. We reverse, however, with respect to two drivers whose information was released to prospective employers because dissemination of inaccurate driver-safety data inflicts an injury sufficiently concrete to confer standing to seek damages.

I.

To fulfill its mandate of ensuring “the highest degree of safety in motor carrier transportation,” the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, maintains the Motor Carrier Management Information System, a database of commercial truck drivers’ safety records. 49 U.S.C. § 113(b). The database includes “accident reports and other safety violations.” Weaver v. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 744 F.3d 142, 143 (D.C. Cir. 2014). Maintaining the database requires collaboration between state and federal authorities. States serve as the primary reporters of information: they are obligated by statute to “collect! ] and report! ] ... accurate, complete, and timely motor carrier safety data.” 49 U.S.C. § 31102(c)(2)(P)(i). For its part, the Department must “ensure, to the maximum extent practical, [that] all the data is complete, timely, and accurate,” id. § 31106(a)(3)(F), and “prescribe technical and operational standards to ensure ... uniform, timely, and accurate information collection and reporting by the States,” id. § 31106(a)(4)(A).

Shippers and other firms looking to hire truck drivers can access certain information in the database, namely, “[c]ommercial motor vehicle accident reports,” “[[Inspection reports that contain no driver-related safety violations,” and “[s]erious driver-related safety violation inspection reports.” Id. § 31150(a). The Department makes this information available through its Pre-Employment Screening Program, which provides employers with reports containing crash data from the previous five years and inspection data from the previous three. See U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Privacy Impact Assessment: Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) (Apr. 14, 2010). The Department must “ensure that any information that is released ... will be in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act [FCRA] ... and all other applicable Federal law.” 49 U.S.C. § 31150(b)(1).

To further guarantee the accuracy of the database, the Department must “provide a procedure for [drivers] to correct inaccurate information.” Id. § 31150(b)(4). In order to accomplish this, the Department “established ‘DataQs,’ a web-based dispute resolution procedure that allows ‘[drivers] to challenge!’]” database information. Weaver, 744 F.3d at 143 (quoting Privacy Act of 1974; Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) 007 Pre-Employment Screening Program, 77 Fed. Reg. 42,548, 42,551 (July 19, 2012)). When a driver files a challenge, the Department forwards it to the relevant state and state officials “decide how to respond.” Id.

Appellants are five commercial truck drivers and their industry association, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Inc. Between 2010 and 2013, state law-enforcement authorities cited each driver for violating safety regulations. See Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association v. Department of Transportation, 211 F.Supp.3d 252, 256 (D.D.C. 2016). The drivers successfully challenged the citations in state court: one driver was found not guilty after trial, and the others had their citations dismissed. Id. at 256-57. All but one of the drivers then asked through DataQs to have the violation reports relating to the citations removed from the Department’s database. Their requests were rejected because, according to the relevant state authorities, the database at the time displayed only initial citations, not adjudicated outcomes. Id. at 257. The safety records of two drivers—Klint Mowrer and Fred Weaver, Jr.—including the challenged violation reports, were shared through the Pre-Employment Screening Program; the other drivers’ records were never disseminated. Id. at 260-61.

The individual drivers and the industry association then sued, challenging the Department’s failure to ensure the' accuracy of the database and seeking injunctive and declaratory relief under the Administrative Procedure Act, as well as damages under the FCRA, The Department moved for summary judgment, arguing (among other things) that the drivers lacked- Article III standing because they failed to show concrete injury in fact. Id. at 258. The district court agreed and dismissed the case. Id. at 261. The drivers appeal, and now we consider the issue afresh. See Scenic America, Inc. v. Department of Transportation, 836 F.3d 42, 49 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (“We review the District Court’s decision ... as to standing de novo . :..”).

II.

“ ‘[Tjhe irreducible constitutional minimum of standing' requires ‘an injury in fact’ that is both, ‘concrete and particularized,’ and ‘actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical.’.” Hancock v. Urban Outfitters, Inc,, 830 F.3d 511, 513 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (alteration in. original) (quoting Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992)). This case focuses on just one element of that test:' whether the alleged injury is “concrete.” Specifically, we must determine whether the drivers’ claimed injury—the Department’s failure to discharge its statutory duty to ensure the accuracy of information in the database—is sufficiently concrete to qualify as injury in fact.

The touchstone for analyzing whether the violation of a statutory obligation constitutes injury in fáct is the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, — U.S. —, 136 S.Ct 1540, 194 L.Ed.2d 635 (2016). There, a consumer initiated'a class action against a company that operates an online search engine that gathers and disseminates personal information, claiming that some of the disseminated information was incorrect. Id. at 1544. According to the consumer, this violated the FCRA, -which imposes procedural requirements on the creation and use of consumer reports, including obligating reporting agencies to adopt mechanisms for ensuring the information’s accuracy.

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Bluebook (online)
879 F.3d 339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/owner-operator-independent-drivers-assn-v-united-states-department-of-cadc-2018.