In 2010, in Weatherspoon v. Tillery Body Shop, Inc., 44 So. 3d 447 (Ala.
2010), Weatherspoon’s vehicle was towed from a restaurant parking lot by
Tillery as an abandoned vehicle. Without making any effort to contact
Weatherspoon, Tillery sold the vehicle. Weatherspoon sued Tillery, not
for anything related to the towing but for conduct occurring after the towing
was completed. The Alabama Supreme Court held that all of Weatherspoon’s
claims were preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act
of 1994 (“FAAAA”) and the ICC Termination Act of 1995 (“ICCTA”).
On May 13, 2013, in Dan’s City Used Cars, Inc. v. Pelkey, 2013 WL
1942398, the United States Supreme Court specifically abrogated the Weatherspoon
opinion. Like Weatherspoon, Pelkey was towed away and Pelkey’s claims
against Dan’s City did not involve the towing but Dan’s City’s conduct in
selling the vehicle. There was federal preemption as to state law
provisions “related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier … with
respect to the transportation of property.” Yet, “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 preemption ….” 2013 WL 1942398
at *4 (emphasis in original).
Obviously, the United States Supreme Court, with no dissenters, concluded that
the Alabama Supreme Court had over-extended the preemptive effect of the FAAAA
and ICCTA to cover matters totally unrelated with the actual towing, the
transportation of property.
