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SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 12–52
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DAN’S CITY USED CARS, INC., dba DAN’S CITY
AUTO BODY, PETITIONER
v. ROBERT PELKEY
on writ of certiorari to the supreme court of
new hampshire
[May 13, 2013]
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the
Court.
This case concerns the preemptive scope of a
provision of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act
of 1994 (FAAAA or Act) applicable to motor carriers. Codi- fied at
49 U. S. C. §14501(c)(1), the provision reads:
“[A] State . . . may not enact or enforce
a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect
of law related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier .
. . with respect to the transportation of property.”
Plaintiff-respondent Robert Pelkey brought suit
under New Hampshire law against defendant-petitioner Dan’s City
Used Cars (Dan’s City), a towing company. Pelkey al- leged that
Dan’s City took custody of his car after towing it without Pelkey’s
knowledge, failed to notify him of its plan to auction the car,
held an auction despite Pelkey’s communication that he wanted to
arrange for the car’s return, and eventually traded the car away
without compensating Pelkey for the loss of his vehicle.
Disposal of abandoned vehicles by a “storage
company” is regulated by chapter 262 of the New Hampshire Revised
Statutes Annotated. See N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§262:31 to
262:40–c (West 2004 and 2012 West Cum. Supp.). Dan’s City relied on
those laws to dispose of Pelkey’s vehicle for nonpayment of towing
and storage fees. According to Pelkey, however, Dan’s City failed
to comply with New Hampshire’s provisions governing the sale of
stored vehicles and the application of sale proceeds. Pelkey
charged that Dan’s City’s disposal of his car without following the
requirements contained in chapter 262 violated the New Hampshire
Consumer Protection Act, §358–A:2 (West 2009), as well as Dan’s
City’s statutory and common-law duties as bailee to exercise
reasonable care while in possession of a bailor’s property.
We hold, in accord with the New Hampshire
Supreme Court, that state-law claims stemming from the storage and
disposal of a car, once towing has ended, are not sufficiently
connected to a motor carrier’s service
with respect to the
transportation of property to warrant pre- emption under
§14501(c)(1). The New Hampshire law in point regulates no towing
services, no carriage of prop- erty. Instead, it trains on
custodians of stored vehicles seeking to sell them. Congress did
not displace the State’s regulation of that activity by any federal
prescription.
I
A
The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 (ADA),
92Stat. 1705, largely deregulated the domestic airline industry. In
keeping with the statute’s aim to achieve “maximum reliance on
competitive market forces,”
id., at 1706, Congress sought to
“ensure that the States would not undo federal deregulation with
regulation of their own.”
Morales v.
Trans World
Airlines, Inc.,
504 U.S.
374, 378 (1992). Congress therefore included a preemption
provision, now codified at 49 U. S. C. §41713(b)(1),
prohibiting States from enacting or enforcing any law “related to a
price, route, or service of an air carrier.”
Two years later, the Motor Carrier Act of 1980,
94 Stat. 793, extended deregulation to the trucking industry.
Congress completed the deregulation 14 years thereafter, in 1994,
by expressly preempting state trucking regulation. Congress did so
upon finding that state governance of intrastate transportation of
property had become “unreasonably burden[some]” to “free trade,
interstate commerce, and American consumers.”
Columbus v.
Ours Ga- rage & Wrecker Service, Inc.,
536 U.S.
424, 440 (2002) (citing FAAAA §601(a)(1), 108Stat. 1605).
Borrowing from the ADA’s preemption clause, but adding a new
qualification, §601(c) of the FAAAA supersedes state laws “related
to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier . . .
with respect to the transportation of property.” 108Stat.
1606, now codified at 49 U. S. C. §14501(c)(1) (emphasis
added).[
1] The Act exempts
certain measures from its preemptive scope, including state laws
regulating motor vehicle safety, size, and weight; motor carrier
insurance; and the intrastate transportation of household goods.
§§14501(c)(2)(A)–(B). Also exempted from preemption are state laws
“relating to the price” of “vehicle transportation by a tow truck,”
if towing occurs without prior consent of the vehicle owner.
§14501(c)(2)(C).
This case involves the interaction between the
FAAAA’s preemption clause and the State of New Hampshire’s
regulation of the removal, storage, and disposal of abandoned motor
vehicles. Chapter 262 of the New Hampshire Revised Statutes
Annotated establishes procedures by which an “authorized official”
or the “owner . . . of any private property . . . on which a
vehicle is parked without permission” may arrange to have the
vehicle towed and stored. N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§262:31 to
262:34, 262:40–a(I). It generally makes the owner of a towed
vehicle responsible for reasonable removal and storage fees. See
§262:33(I) (reasonable removal and storage charges “shall be a lien
against the vehicle which shall be paid by the owner”); §262:33(II)
(owner entitled to recover vehicle after “payment of all reasonable
towing and storage charges”); §262:40–a(II) (owner of a vehicle
towed from a parking lot or parking garage is responsible for
“removal and storage charges” when the lot or garage conspicuously
posts notice of parking restrictions).
Under chapter 262, the custodian of a car that
remains unclaimed for 30 days following a tow may dispose of the
vehicle upon compliance with notice requirements. §§262:36–a(I),
(II). A “garage owner or keeper” must post notices of an impending
sale in public places and provide mail notice to the vehicle owner
whenever the owner’s address may “be ascertained . . . by
the exercise of reasonable diligence.” §262:38. If a towed vehicle
is not fit for legal use, its custodian need not provide individual
or public notice prior to disposal, and sale of the vehicle may
occur upon written notice to and approval from New Hampshire’s
Department of Public Safety. §262:36–a(III).[
2]
On compliance with the statutory requirements,
the custodian of a stored vehicle may sell the vehicle by public
auction at its place of business. §262:37. The storage company may
use the sale proceeds to pay “the amount of the liens and the
reasonable expenses incident to the sale.” §262:39 (West 2004).
Remaining proceeds are payable “to the [vehicle’s] owner
. . . if claimed at any time within one year from the
date of sale.”
Ibid.
B
The landlord of the apartment complex in which
Pelkey lived required tenants to remove their cars from the parking
lot in the event of a snowstorm, so that the snow could be cleared.
Pelkey’s 2004 Honda Civic remained in the lot during and after a
February 2007 snowstorm. At the landlord’s request, Dan’s City
towed and stored the vehicle. Confined to his bed with a serious
medical condition, Pelkey did not know his car had been towed. Soon
after removal of his car, Pelkey was admitted to the hospital for a
procedure to amputate his left foot, during which he suffered a
heart attack. He remained under hospital care until his discharge
on April 9, 2007.
Unaware of Pelkey’s identity or illness, Dan’s
City sought permission from New Hampshire’s Department of Public
Safety to sell the Honda at auction without notice. In response,
the department identified Pelkey as the last known owner of the
vehicle. Dan’s City wrote to Pelkey, notifying him that it had
towed and was storing his car. When the post office returned the
letter, checking the box “moved, left no address,” Dan’s City
scheduled an auction for April 19. Meanwhile, in the days following
Pelkey’s discharge from the hospital, his attorney learned from
counsel for the apartment complex that the car had been towed by
Dan’s City and was scheduled to be sold at pub- lic auction. On
April 17, Pelkey’s attorney informed Dan’s City that Pelkey wanted
to pay any charges owed and reclaim his vehicle. Dan’s City
nevertheless proceeded with the auction. Attracting no bidders,
Dan’s City later disposed of the car by trading it to a third
party. Pelkey was not notified in advance of the trade, and has
received no proceeds from the sale.
Pelkey brought suit against Dan’s City in New
Hampshire Superior Court. He alleged that Dan’s City violated the
New Hampshire Consumer Protection Act, N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann.
§358–A:2, by failing to comply with chapter 262’s requirements for
disposal of stored vehicles, mak- ing false statements about the
condition and value of his Honda, and proceeding with the auction
despite notice that Pelkey wanted to reclaim the car.[
3] He also alleged that Dan’s City
negligently breached both statutory and common-law duties as a
bailee to use reasonable care in disposing of the car. Granting
summary judgment to Dan’s City, the New Hampshire Superior Court
concluded that Pelkey’s claims were preempted by the FAAAA.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed. It
held the FAAAA’s preemption clause, 49 U. S. C.
§14501(c)(1), inapplicable because Pelkey’s claims related to Dan’s
City’s conduct in disposing of his Honda post-storage, not to
conduct concerning “the transportation of property.” 163 N. H.
483, 490–493, 44 A.3d 480, 487–489 (2012) (emphasis deleted).
Alternatively, the court ruled that, even if Pelkey’s claims could
be said to concern the transportation of property, they did not
“sufficiently relat[e] to a towing company’s ‘service’ to be
preempted.”
Id., at 493, 44 A. 3d, at 490.
We granted certiorari to resolve a division of
opinion in state supreme courts on whether 49 U. S. C.
§14501(c)(1) preempts a vehicle owner’s state-law claims against a
towing company regarding the company’s post-towing disposal of the
vehicle. 568 U. S. ___ (2012). Compare 163 N. H. 483, 44
A.3d 480 (this case), with
Weatherspoon v.
Tillery Body
Shop, Inc., 44 So. 3d 447, 458 (Ala. 2010) (§14501(c)(1)
preempts state statutory and common-law claims arising out of
storage and sale of a towed vehicle).
II
A
Where, as in this case, Congress has
superseded state legislation by statute, our task is to “identify
the domain expressly pre-empted.”
Lorillard Tobacco Co. v.
Reilly,
533 U.S.
525, 541 (2001). To do so, we focus first on the statutory
language, “which necessarily contains the best evidence of
Congress’ pre-emptive intent.”
CSX Transp., Inc. v.
Easterwood,
507 U.S.
658, 664 (1993).
The FAAAA’s preemption clause prohibits
enforcement of state laws “related to a price, route, or service of
any motor carrier . . . with respect to the
transportation of property.” 49 U. S. C. §14501(c)(1). In
Rowe v.
New Hampshire Motor Transp. Assn.,
552 U.S.
364, 370 (2008), our reading of this language was informed by
decisions interpreting the parallel language in the ADA’s
preemption clause. The phrase “related to,” we said, embraces state
laws “having a connection with or reference to” carrier
“ ‘rates, routes, or services,’ ” whether directly or
indirectly.
Ibid. (quoting
Morales, 504 U. S.,
at 384; emphasis deleted). See also
id., at 383 (“ordinary
meaning of . . . words [‘related to’] is a broad one,”
thus ADA’s use of those words “expresses a broad pre-emptive
purpose”).
At the same time, the breadth of the words
“related to” does not mean the sky is the limit. We have refused to
read the preemption clause of the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act of 1974, 29 U. S. C. §1144(a), which
supersedes state laws “relate[d] to any employee benefit plan,”
with an “uncritical literalism,” else “for all practical purposes
pre-emption would never run its course.”
New York State
Conference of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans v.
Travelers Ins. Co.,
514 U.S.
645, 655–656 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted). And we
have cautioned that §14501(c)(1) does not preempt state laws
affecting carrier prices, routes, and services “in only a ‘tenuous,
remote, or peripheral . . . manner.’ ”
Rowe,
552 U. S., at 371 (quoting
Morales, 504 U. S., at
390).
B
The New Hampshire Supreme Court concluded that
Pelkey’s state-law claims are “related to” neither the
“transportation of property” nor the “service” of a motor carrier.
We agree.
Pelkey’s claims escape preemption, we hold,
because they are not “related to” the service of a motor carrier
“with respect to the transportation of property.” §14501(c)(1).
Although §14501(c)(1) otherwise tracks the ADA’s air-carrier
preemption provision, see
Rowe, 552 U. S., at 370, the
FAAAA formulation contains one conspicuous alteration—the addition
of the words “with respect to the transportation of property.” That
phrase “massively limits the scope of preemption” ordered by the
FAAAA.
Ours Garage, 536 U. S., at 449 (Scalia, J.,
dissenting).[
4] As the New
Hampshire Supreme Court correctly understood, for purposes of FAAAA
preemption, it is not sufficient that a state law relates to the
“price, route, or service” of a motor carrier in any capacity; the
law must also concern a motor carrier’s “transportation of
property.” See 163 N. H., at 490, 44 A. 3d, at 487.
Title 49 defines “transportation,” in relevant
part, as “services related to th[e] movement” of property,
“including arranging for, receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in
transit, refrigeration, icing, ventilation, storage, handling,
packing, unpacking, and interchange of passengers and property.”
§13102(23)(B). Pelkey’s Consumer Protection Act and negligence
claims are not “related to th[e]
movement” of his car.
Ibid. (emphasis added). He charges Dan’s City with failure
to comply with chapter 262 and neglect of its statutory and
common-law duties of care as a bailee of his stored vehicle.
Chapter 262 does not limit when, where, or how tow trucks may be
operated. The Chapter regulates, instead, the disposal of vehicles
once their transportation—here, by towing—has ended. Pelkey does
not object to the manner in which his car was moved or the price of
the tow; he seeks redress only for conduct subsequent to
“transportation,” conduct occurring after the car ceased moving and
was stored.
Dan’s City maintains that because
§13102(23)(B)’s definition of “transportation” includes “storage”
and “handling,” Pelkey’s claims, which do concern the storage and
handling of his car, fall within §14501(c)(1)’s preemp- tive ambit.
Dan’s City overlooks, however, that under §13102(23)(B), services
such as “storage” and “handling” fit within the definition of
“transportation” only when those services “relat[e] to th[e]
movement” of property. Temporary storage of an item in transit en
route to its final destination relates to the movement of property
and therefore fits within §13102(23)(B)’s definition. But property
stored after delivery is no longer in transit. Cf. 49 CFR §375.609
(2012) (distinguishing between “storage-in-transit” and “permanent
storage” (regulation of Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration)). Here, no storage occurred in the course of
transporting Pelkey’s vehicle. Dan’s City’s storage of Pelkey’s car
after the towing job was done, in short, does not involve
“transportation” within the meaning of the federal Act.
Pelkey’s claims also survive preemption under
§14501(c)(1) because they are unrelated to a “service” a motor
carrier renders its customers. The transportation service Dan’s
City provided was the removal of Pelkey’s car from his landlord’s
parking lot. That service, which did involve the movement of
property, ended months before the conduct on which Pelkey’s claims
are based. His claims rely on New Hampshire’s abandoned vehicle
disposal regime, prescribed in chapter 262, for the rules governing
Dan’s City’s conduct.[
5]
Chapter 262 addresses “storage compan[ies]” and “garage owner[s] or
keeper[s],” not transportation activities. See N. H. Rev.
Stat. Ann. §§262:36–a, 262:38. Unlike Maine’s tobacco delivery
regulations at issue in
Rowe, chapter 262 has neither a
direct nor an indirect connection to any transportation services a
motor carrier offers its customers
. See 552 U. S., at
371. We need not venture an all-purposes definition of
transportation “service[s]” in order to conclude that state-law
claims homing in on the disposal of stored vehicles fall outside
§14501(c)(1)’s preemptive compass.
Our conclusion that state-law claims regarding
disposal of towed vehicles are not preempted is in full accord with
Congress’ purpose in enacting §14501(c)(1). Concerned that state
regulation “impeded the free flow of trade, traffic, and
transportation of interstate commerce,” Congress resolved to
displace “
certain aspects of the State regulatory process.”
FAAAA §601(a), 108Stat. 1605 (emphasis added). The target at which
it aimed was “a State’s direct substitution of its own governmental
commands for competitive market forces in determining (to a
signifi- cant degree) the services that motor carriers will pro-
vide.”
Rowe, 552 U. S., at 372 (internal quotation
marks omitted).
Pelkey’s claims are far removed from Congress’
driving concern. He sued under state consumer protection and tort
laws to gain compensation for the alleged unlawful disposal of his
vehicle. The state laws in question hardly constrain participation
in interstate commerce by requiring a motor carrier to offer
services not available in the market. Nor do the state laws invoked
by Pelkey “freez[e] into place services that carriers might prefer
to discon- tinue in the future.”
Ibid. New Hampshire’s laws
on dis- posal of stored vehicles, moreover, will not open the way
for “a patchwork of state service-determining laws, rules, and
regulations.”
Id., at 373. As Dan’s City concedes, abandoned
vehicle laws like chapter 262 “do not hamper the operations of tow
truckers” and “are not the kind of burdensome state economic
regulation Congress sought to preempt.” Reply Brief 21.
C
Dan’s City advances two further arguments in
favor of preemption. First, Dan’s City contends that Congress’
enumeration of exceptions to preemption, detailed in 49
U. S. C. §§14501(c)(2), (3), and (5), permits state
regulation of motor carriers only when the State’s law comes within
a specified exception. Because Pelkey’s claims do not fit within
any exception to preemption, Dan’s City urges, those claims must be
preempted. This argument exceeds sensible bounds. Exceptions to a
general rule, while sometimes a helpful interpretive guide, do not
in themselves delineate the scope of the rule. The exceptions to
§14501(c)(1)’s general rule of preemption identify matters a State
may regulate when it would otherwise be precluded from doing so,
but they do not control more than that.
An example may clarify the point. Section
14501(c) does not exempt zoning regulations. Such laws, however,
“are peculiarly within the province of state and local legislative
authorities.”
Warth v.
Seldin,
422 U.S.
490, 508, n. 18 (1975). It is hardly doubtful that state
or local regulation of the physical location of motor-carrier
operations falls outside the preemptive sweep of §14501(c)(1). That
is so because zoning ordinances ordinarily are not “related to a
price, route, or service of any motor carrier . . . with
re- spect to the transportation of property.” §14501(c)(1). The
same is true of New Hampshire’s regulation of the dis- posal of
stored vehicles.
Dan’s City, in a second argument, urges
otherwise. Pelkey’s claims, Dan’s City maintains, are “related to”
the towing service it rendered because selling Pelkey’s car was the
means by which Dan’s City obtained payment for the tow. But if such
state-law claims are preempted, no law would govern resolution of a
non-contract-based dispute arising from a towing company’s disposal
of a vehicle previously towed or afford a remedy for wrongful
disposal. Federal law does not speak to these issues.[
6] Thus, not only would the preemption urged
by Dan’s City leave vehicle owners without any recourse for
damages, it would eliminate the sole legal authorization for a
towing com- pany’s disposal of stored vehicles that go unclaimed.
No such design can be attributed to a rational Congress. See
Silkwood v.
Kerr-McGee Corp.,
464
U.S. 238, 251 (1984) (“It is difficult to believe that Congress
would, without comment, remove all means of judicial recourse for
those injured by illegal conduct.”).
In sum, Dan’s City cannot have it both ways. It
cannot rely on New Hampshire’s regulatory framework as
authorization for the sale of Pelkey’s car, yet argue that Pelkey’s
claims, invoking the same state-law regime, are preempted. New
Hampshire’s legislation on abandoned vehicles gave rise to Pelkey’s
debt and established the conditions under which Dan’s City could
collect on that debt by selling Pelkey’s Honda. See N. H. Rev.
Stat. Ann. §§262:33, 262:36–a, 262:40–a;
supra, at 3–5.
Pelkey’s claims, attacking Dan’s City’s conduct in disposing of the
vehicle, rest on the very same provisions. See Brief for Petitioner
41 (“All of the alleged wrongful conduct of Dan’s City was part of
the state sanctioned and regulated process for disposing of
abandoned vehicles under Ch. 262.”).
* * *
For the reasons stated, we hold that 49
U. S. C. §14501(c)(1) does not preempt state-law claims
for dam- ages stemming from the storage and disposal of a towed
vehicle. The judgment of the New Hampshire Supreme Court is
therefore affirmed.
It is so ordered.
