Legislative Bulletin - September 15, 2011

Trial Lawyers Seek U.S. Supreme Court Challenge to Graves Law

The United States Supreme Court has been asked to review the constitutionality of the federal Graves Law (49 US 30106), which prohibits states from imposing vicarious liability on non-negligent owners of rented and leased vehicles.

Trial lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Litigation PC, (CCL) an arm of the Association for American Justice (formerly known as the American Trial Lawyers Association), filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court on September 19, 2011. The petitioners are asking for the Supreme Court to review the Vargas v Enterprise case and are challenging the constitutionality of the Graves Law. In April 2011, a Florida Supreme Court ruling in Vargas v Enterprise upheld the Graves Law, affirming an earlier decision by the Fourth District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida in the same case.

Responses to the petition for the Supreme Court to review Vargas v Enterprise are due by October 21, 2011. TRALA intends to file a brief in response to this petition. TRALA filed an amicus brief on behalf of the industry in the Vargas v Enterprise in September 2009. To date TRALA has filed amicus briefs supporting the Graves Law in eight cases. All of these cases have resulted in positive decisions upholding the authority of the federal prohibition on vicarious liability.

The Graves Law was passed in August 2005 as part of the SAFETEA-LU highway bill, the result of a multi-year vicarious liability reform effort led by TRALA. It created a uniform national standard against liability without fault by preempting state vicarious liability laws that imposed liability on non-negligent leasing and renting companies solely on the basis of ownership. Since its passage, TRALA members have saved hundreds of millions of dollars annually in potential frivolous lawsuits and legal costs.

To view a copy of the petition for a writ of certiorari, please click here. For more information about the Graves Law, please contact TRALA's Tom James at tjamaes@trala.org or at 703-299-9120.