Retail Direct, LLC v. Payano Express, LLC

Summary

The Tennessee Court of Appeals reversed summary judgment for Retail Direct, LLC in a dispute over whether it qualified as a common carrier exempt from workers’ compensation liability for injuries to an employee of its subcontractor. The court held that federal motor-carrier operating authority did not, by itself, establish common-carrier status under Tennessee Code Annotated section 50-6-106(1)(A). Because evidence that Retail Direct served only Lowe’s and did not offer transportation services to the general public created a genuine dispute of material fact, the case was remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. No. The statute imposes three distinct requirements for the exemption: the entity must be a common carrier, the common carrying must be by motor vehicle, and the entity must operate pursuant to a certificate of public convenience and necessity. Possession of FMCSA operating authority, even assuming it qualifies as the modern equivalent of such a certificate, satisfies only the certificate requirement and does not itself establish common-carrier status.
2. No. Retail Direct failed to establish as a matter of law that it operated as a common carrier because it exclusively served one corporate customer, Lowe's, and did not publish rates or tariffs for the general public. Its FMCSA certificate and evidence of deliveries to public customers were insufficient to eliminate the factual and legal dispute concerning its actual mode of operation.
3. No. Honsa, Joslin, and Long did not decide whether the entities in those cases were common carriers because that issue was undisputed or otherwise not before the Tennessee Supreme Court. Those decisions therefore did not establish that a federal operating certificate alone confers common-carrier status under section 50-6-106(1)(A).

Questions Presented

1. Whether Retail Direct's FMCSA operating authority established that it was a common carrier under Tennessee Code Annotated section 50-6-106(1)(A).
2. Whether Retail Direct was entitled to summary judgment on its claim that the common-carrier exemption relieved it of workers' compensation liability.
3. Whether the trial court exceeded its subject matter jurisdiction by ruling on Retail Direct's ultimate liability for workers' compensation benefits.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded