C.H. Robinson executives said they are confident the company will prevail on appeal in a case involving one of the largest ever “nuclear verdicts” in the freight transportation space.
Company officials also warned of the growing consequences to the supply chain from these legal cases and called on the federal government to act.
Last month, a Texas jury awarded a total of $604 million to the plaintiff and found C.H. Robinson partially responsible for a deadly 2021 accident involving motor carrier Lupus Superior. It was the first major case since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that freight brokers like C.H. Robinson can be held liable for the negligent hiring of motor carriers involved in crashes.
“We go beyond federal requirements and apply multiple layers of safety and risk criteria that we continuously reevaluate and strengthen,” C.H. Robinson President and CEO David Bozeman said in a conference call following the company’s second-quarter earnings report.
Bozeman stressed Lupus Superior is an independent motor carrier that worked with many other brokers and shippers. It had safely delivered nearly 270 loads for C.H. Robinson prior to the accident.
“We really believe this case was decided based on emotion rather than the law,” Bozeman said. “We believe the law and the facts support our position, and we strongly disagree with the jury’s verdict in this case.”
In an email to trucknews.com, C.H. Robinson said Lupus Superior held the federal government’s highest safety rating when it was selected and that the jury mistakenly considered the driver to be a C.H. Robinson employee.
The company said suggestions that C.H. Robinson ignored alerts or data it received predicting that Lupus Superior would get in an accident are false. In addition, claims that the driver told C.H. Robinson he was sick and that the company allowed him to continue driving are also false.
“What is true is that the driver worked for Lupus Superior, he did not communicate with C.H. Robinson, and we did not supervise, direct, or control his actions,” the company said.
On the earnings call, Bozeman noted the jury’s advisory verdict is only one step in the legal process and does not ultimately determine what, if anything, C.H. Robinson will pay.
“If the jury’s advisory verdict is entered as final, we will immediately appeal, and we are very confident in the facts and the law on appeal,” Bozeman said.
He also called for a clear national standard for determining what constitutes a safe carrier.
“The extreme nature of this verdict means it is even more imperative that Congress and the federal government act with urgency to establish clear and proper accountabilities across the transportation industry that enhance highway safety and support the uninterrupted flow of goods across the United States,” he said.
Bozeman added that if nuclear verdicts become the new normal, “service levels will be significantly impacted. And of course, the cost of transportation will certainly soar.”
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