Truck driver can’t be compelled to arbitrate injury claims

A Texas appellate court ruled that a truck driver could not be compelled to arbitrate his personal injury claims against his employer, which opted not to carry workers compensation coverage.

When Adan Romo was hired as a commercial truck driver for LKQ Automotive in 2019, he signed documents acknowledging that the company was a “nonsubscriber” under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act and received a copy of the company’s injury benefit plan, according to the ruling in LKQ Automotive v. Romo, filed Friday in the Court of Appeals for the 8th District of Texas.

The plan said certain injury-related disputes, including personal injury and negligent hiring claims, would be submitted to binding arbitration. In March 2024, Mr. Romo allegedly suffered injuries while operating a forklift when a co-worker struck him with another forklift.

Mr. Romo filed a personal injury suit against LKQ and three coworkers, alleging they “failed to provide him with a safe workplace” and were vicariously liable for the “acts or omissions.”

The defendants denied liability and moved to compel arbitration.

In opposing the motion, Mr. Romo did not deny that he signed the agreement, did not deny the agreement’s validity and did not contest that his claims came within its scope. But he argued that he was entitled to the transportation worker exception to the Federal Arbitration Act. The trial judge denied the motion to compel.

The act provides an exception for transportation workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce, and the court determined that Mr. Romo fell within this category.

The court reasoned that truck drivers who transport goods “are indisputably transportation workers” and that Mr. Romo was a “constituent part” of the interstate movement of goods.

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the trial judge was required to accept Mr. Romo’s “uncontroverted affidavit” as true, the court said, so the judge did not commit an abuse of discretion in finding that Mr. Romo was employed as a transportation worker who was engaged in interstate commerce, exempt from arbitration under the FAA.

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