Shaw v. Jesse Morris Trucking LLC

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS NORTHERN DIVISION

BRYAN SHAW PLAINTIFF

No. 3:20-cv-134-DPM

JESSE MORRIS TRUCKING, LLC; NEW PRIME, INC.; and JOHN DOE, Driver DEFENDANTS

ORDER This case is about an accident involving two tractor trailers at a truck stop. Shaw was asleep in the cab of his tractor trailer in the parking lot of the Flying J truck stop in West Memphis. An unidentified driver for Jesse Morris Trucking, pulling a New Prime trailer, ran into Shaw’s vehicle, injuring him. Shaw has sued the driver and the two companies. New Prime moves to dismiss, saying it was only a broker and arguing that Shaw’s personal injury claims against New Prime are therefore preempted by federal statutes. New Prime’s motion, Doc. 9, is denied without prejudice. First, Shaw pleads in the alternative. He asserts New Prime’s liability if it is a broker; but he also pleads that New Prime is responsible in law for the driver’s actions based on various theories of vicarious liability, including respondeat superior and a joint enterprise. This is plausible, and the Court must accept the pleaded facts as true at this point.

Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). So New Prime stays in on the vicarious liability alternative. Second, the preemption cases are deeply divided, and while Data Manufacturing, Inc. v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 557 F.3d 849, 852 (8th Cir. 2009) is in the neighborhood, no governing precedent exists about personal injury claims from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Compare, e.g., Benedetto v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 917 F. Supp. 2d 976, 981 (D.S.D. 2013), with, e.g., Jimenez- Ruiz v. Spirit Airlines, Inc., 794 F. Supp. 2d 344, 349 (D.P.R. 2011). The issue is nuanced. It is better resolved on a more-complete factual record about the defendants’ dealings and relationships. In future briefing, the Court would also benefit from a more selective use of authorities — comprehensiveness is valuable, but it can be bewildering, too. On summary judgment, please identify and argue from the best-reasoned cases directly on point and let the rest go. So Ordered.

D.P. Marshall Jr. United States District Judge 2 Octoker 2Ad0AaDd

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