The American Trucking Associations on Tuesday, Jan. 5, filed its final response brief seeking summary judgment in certain aspects of its challenge to the Port of Los Angeles concession plan mechanism. Among other things, ATA is asking the U.S. District Court to find in its favor the legal issue of whether the port’s concession agreement has a sufficient impact on motor carrier rates, routes and services to fall within the federal pre-emption provision.
The court is scheduled to hear the ATA motion and the port’s cross motion for summary judgment on Monday, Jan. 11, with a decision expected shortly thereafter. Legal issues requiring further factual development will be the subject of a trial beginning in mid-March. Summary judgment is a procedural device that allows a court to decide some or all of the legal issues involved in a case prior to trial if there is no legitimate dispute as to the material facts surrounding those issues.
After the Clean Truck Program initiative was launched by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in late 2008, ATA filed a lawsuit challenging the program’s concession agreement, which established clean air, safety and maintenance requirements on trucking companies that operated at the ports. On April 27, 2009, Judge Christina Snyder of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California made a tentative ruling to enjoin several elements of the concession plans at both ports.
Following the March 20 guidance of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Snyder ordered an injunction against seven concession requirements that ATA had argued would regulate interstate commerce at the ports:
