On February 5, 2015, Judge Robert G. Stearns issued industry-favorable decisions in two worker classification suits pending in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Based upon the First Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Massachusetts Delivery Ass’n v. Coakley, 769 F.3d 11 (1st Cir. 2014) (“MDA”), Judge Stearns withdrew a previous order and granted summary judgment in favor of FedEx Ground in Schwann, et al. v. Fedex Ground Package System, Inc., and dismissed plaintiffs’ complaint against J.B. Hunt in Remington, et al. v. J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. In both decisions, Judge Stearns instructed the Clerk of Courts to close the cases.

In MDA, the First Circuit reversed a decision that the Massachusetts Independent Contractor Law, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, §148B (the “Massachusetts “ABC” Test”) was not preempted for motor carriers under the Federal Aviation and Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (“FAAAA”). The Massachusetts “ABC” Test provides that a worker is properly classified as an independent contractor if the employer can show that: (1) the individual is free from control and direction in connection with the performance of the service, both under his contract for the performance of service and in fact; and (2) the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer, and (3) the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed. Since the Massachusetts “ABC” Test could affect a motor carrier’s prices, routes, or services, and concerns a motor carrier’s transportation of property, the Court returned the case to the District Court to determine whether the statute satisfied the broad FAAAA preemption based upon the record of the case.