A New Jersey appeals court ruled that Amazon and a subcontractor are not liable for injuries from a crash that occurred after a delivery dispatcher stole a van from an Amazon facility.
As more and more delivery vans full of Amazon packages hit the streets and highways, the case shows that obtaining compensation for injured parties could be a challenge when one of those vehicles is in a collision.
Cornucopia Logistics, which was under contract to deliver groceries ordered through Amazon Fresh, was not liable to a man who was injured when its employee took a delivery van for personal use and then fell asleep at the wheel, the appeals court said.
The plaintiff asserted that Amazon was liable for the crash injuries because it retained control of the manner and means of Cornucopia’s operations, but the appeals court said that theory fell apart because Cornucopia was found not liable.
The appeals court panel, consisting of Judges Mary Gibbons Whipple, Jessica Mayer and James Paganelli, affirmed a ruling by Superior Court Judge Alan Lesnewich of Union County Superior Court that granted summary judgment to Cornucopia Amazon Logistics and Amazon Fulfillment Services.
‘That Sends a Bad Message’
The suit was brought by Richard Finaldi, who was seriously injured when he collided with the van while driving through an intersection in Linden.
Finaldi’s lawyer, Corey A. Dietz of Brach Eichler in Roseland, said he will petition the Supreme Court for certification in the case.
Dietz said the ruling is troubling because Cornucopia had detailed policies and procedures in place to safeguard and keep track of its fleet of delivery vehicles, but those procedures were not followed when its employee stole a company vehicle.
“The focus of the petition is going to be the public policy message this sends where [a company] that has these policies in place and has a vehicle that goes missing for over 12 hours is not responsible. I think that sends a bad message here in New Jersey, and it’s something that I’m not comfortable with,” Dietz said.
Richard F. Connors Jr. of Tompkins, McGuire, Wachenfeld & Barry in Roseland, representing Cornucopia, did not return a call. Ahmed J. Kassim of Sills, Cummis & Gross in Newark, representing Amazon, declined to comment about the case.
The van’s driver, Matthew Knight, had a suspended driver’s license at the time of the crash, according to court documents. He started working at Cornucopia as a delivery driver but was promoted to dispatcher when he lost his license, according to court papers.
Knight took the van from an Amazon warehouse in Avenel to help his mother move, then fell asleep at the wheel and ran a red light when he collided with Finaldi’s car, according to court documents.
Finaldi, who was 74 at the time of the crash, required surgery to his right arm and right leg, and also fractured his sternum and five ribs, Dietz said.
“With the grave nature of these injuries and in common with his age, he’s essentially never recovered from this accident, Dietz said.
‘We Decline to Follow Plaintiffs’ Argument’
The appeals court said, in an unsigned opinion, that the threshold question in the case was whether Cornucopia owed a duty to Finaldi.
Dietz asserted that because Cornucopia had procedures in place to prevent the theft of its vehicles, but its employees did not follow those procedures, it owed a duty to the plaintiff. But the appeals court rejected that assertion.
“Plaintiffs argue they are not seeking to impose any duty on Cornucopia that Cornucopia had not already imposed on itself by securing the keys and taking inventories of the keys multiple times throughout the shift. We decline to follow plaintiffs’ argument that the unauthorized use of the van and the accident were sufficiently foreseeable to impose a duty upon Cornucopia,” the panel said.
This was the first time an employee used a company delivery van for his own use, the panel said.
“Further, even if it was foreseeable an employee would steal one of the vans, Cornucopia could not have known Knight—who had no prior accidents as a driver for the company and was presumably accustomed to driving during early morning hours—would doze off at the wheel and collide with” Finaldi, the panel said.
