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S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc v. Transport Corporation of America, Inc., et al

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ARGUED MAY 29, 2012

Before WOOD, SYKES, and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

Injured by a bribery and kickback scheme hatched by a dishonest employee and some transportation companies, S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., fought back with two lawsuits. The first was a civil lawsuit in Wisconsin state court, in which it raised several tort claims against a number of transportation companies. This is the second one, filed against different defendants in federal court. Relying on the court’s diver- sity jurisdiction, S.C. Johnson raised a number of state- law claims, including one based on the state law prohib- iting bribery and another under Wisconsin’s counter-part to the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly known as RICO. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 et seq. The district court dismissed the action, believing that federal law preempts the company’s state tort claims because they could have “the force and effect of a law 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). We reverse. We con-clude that S.C. Johnson’s claim for fraudulent misrep-presentation was properly dismissed, but that its theories based on bribery and kickbacks fall outside the scope of the preemption provision. We find it unnecessary to discuss its theory based on aiding and abetting breach of a fiduciary duty, because (as it admits) this is time- barred. S.C. Johnson is therefore entitled to move forward with these aspects of its case.

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