Castro

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Mario Castro (Castro), a California resident, sustained physical injuries in a traffic collision in Alabama allegedly caused by an overturned truck owned by defendant and respondent Budget Rent-A-Car System, Inc. (Budget). Prior to the accident, Budget had leased the truck that overturned to defendant Carlos Diaz, doing business as Carlos Diaz Fresh Produce (Diaz). At the time of the accident, Diaz’s employee, defendant Jose Lopez (Lopez), was driving Budget’s leased truck while allegedly intoxicated.

Plaintiffs sued Budget and others in California state court for negligence and lost consortium. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Budget on the grounds that Alabama law—not federal or California law— applied and that under Alabama’s common law doctrine governing the permissive use of motor vehicles (permissive user law), Budget was not responsible for the negligence of either Diaz or Lopez. On appeal, plaintiffs contend that federal law or the common law nondelegable duty doctrine should apply, either of which would result in Budget’s liability. They argue that at the time of the accident, Budget qualified as a “motor carrier’’…