Opinion ID: 895280
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Seatbelts and Federal Preemption

Text: Given that no federal safety standard even discusses passenger seatbelts in motorcoaches, MCI's preemption claim is predicated on regulatory silence. That is, MCI argues that NHTSA's failure to regulate was deliberate and has the same preemptive force as a regulation forbidding passenger seatbelts. While we agree that regulatory silence can preempt state law in rare occasions, we do not agree that NHTSA's decision not to require seatbelts in motorcoaches is such an occasion. The Supreme Court has stated that a federal decision to forgo regulation in a given area may imply an authoritative federal determination that the area is best left un regulated, and in that event would have as much pre-emptive force as a decision to regulate. Sprietsma v. Mercury Marine, 537 U.S. 51, 66, 123 S.Ct. 518, 154 L.Ed.2d 466 (2002) (quoting Ark. Elec. Coop. Corp. v. Ark. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 461 U.S. 375, 384, 103 S.Ct. 1905, 76 L.Ed.2d 1 (1983) (quotation marks omitted)). In applying this standard, the Court focused on the agency's explanation for its decision not to regulate. See id. at 66-67, 123 S.Ct. 518. Two cases in which the Court considered the preemptive effect of an agency's decision not to regulate illustrate the rule's application. In Sprietsma, the Supreme Court considered whether a claim that a motor boat should have been equipped with a propeller guard was preempted by the Federal Boat Safety Act of 1971, 46 U.S.C. §§ 4301-4311 (Boating Act). Like the Safety Act, the Boating Act contains both an express preemption clause and a saving clause, which the Court interpreted the same waythe preemption clause only affected state legislation and regulations, and the saving clause preserved common-law tort actions. 537 U.S. at 63, 123 S.Ct. 518. Finding no express preemption, the Court unanimously rejected the claim that the tort action conflicted with the federal regulatory scheme. Id. at 65, 123 S.Ct. 518. Addressing the boat manufacturer's argument that the Coast Guard's decision not to adopt a regulation requiring propeller guards on motorboats had preemptive force, the Court responded: It is quite wrong to view that decision as the functional equivalent of a regulation prohibiting all States and their political subdivisions from adopting such a regulation. Id. Rather, that decision is fully consistent with an intent to preserve state regulatory authority pending the adoption of specific federal standards. Id. The Coast Guard decided not require propeller guards because doing so was not technically feasible, the cost of retrofitting boats was substantial, and accident data did not support such regulation; as such, the high standard for justifying regulations was not met. Id. at 66, 123 S.Ct. 518. Given this explanation, the Court found nothing in the Coast Guard's statement inconsistent with a tort verdict premised on a jury's finding that some type of propeller guard should have been installed. Id. at 67, 123 S.Ct. 518. Similarly, in Freightliner Corp. v. Myrick, the Supreme Court refused to give preemptive force to regulatory silence: We hold that the absence of a federal standard cannot implicitly extinguish state common law. 514 U.S. 280, 282, 115 S.Ct. 1483, 131 L.Ed.2d 385 (1995). The plaintiffs claimed the tractor-trailers that crashed into their vehicles should have been equipped with antilock braking systems (ABS). The Safety Act and NHTSA regulations did not require such braking systems, [15] but the manufacturer argued that the absence of regulation itself constitutes regulation. Id. at 286, 115 S.Ct. 1483. The Court distinguished an earlier case in which it had stated that the failure of federal officials affirmatively to exercise their full authority takes on the character of a ruling that no such regulation is appropriate or approved pursuant to the policy of the statute. Id. at 286, 115 S.Ct. 1483 (quoting Ray v. Atl. Richfield Co., 435 U.S. 151, 178, 98 S.Ct. 988, 55 L.Ed.2d 179 (1978) (quotation marks omitted)). In Ray, Congress had intended to consolidate all regulatory power in the federal government, whereas in Myrick, NHTSA did not decide that the minimum, objective safety standard required by [the Safety Act] should be the absence of all standards, both federal and state. Id. at 286-87, 115 S.Ct. 1483. From these cases, it follows that an agency's mere decision to leave an area unregulated is not enough to preempt state law. Instead, the agency must, consistent with the authority delegated to it by Congress, affirmatively indicate that no regulation is appropriate. That is, the agency must state that not only will it leave the area unregulated, it will not allow any regulation in that area as a matter of policy. Unless the agency takes this further step to disallow state regulation, its decision not to regulate has no preemptive force. Sprietsma, 537 U.S. at 67, 123 S.Ct. 518. When looking at NHTSA's comments regarding passenger seatbelts in motorcoaches, we do not find any expression of intent to forbid state regulation. NHTSA proposed a requirement for passenger seatbelts in 1973 along with modified seating standards designed to contain passengers during a crash. See 38 Fed.Reg. 4776 (Feb. 22, 1973). The following year NHTSA continued to advance such seating standards in school buses, but decided to withdraw the proposed standards for motorcoaches and transit buses: The NHTSA has in fact determined that seating requirements for intercity and transit buses are not justified, based on benefit/cost studies of present seating performance in these buses.... Seat belt usage surveys in intercity buses also indicate that a very low percentage of passengers would utilize seat belts if they were provided.... The NHTSA will, of course, propose standards in the future in this area if they are found desirable. School Bus Passenger Crash Protection, 39 Fed.Reg. 27,585 (July 30, 1974). This explanation indicates that NHTSA simply determined that the cost of installing seatbelts was not justified given the low usage rates. [16] Nothing in these few sentences evidences an intent to prevent a state jury from concluding that seatbelts in a particular setting were appropriate. The similarity of NHTSA's decision to the Coast Guard's decision in Sprietsma not to regulate is compelling. Like NHTSA, the Coast Guard had considered and rejected a proposed standard intended to increase user safety on the grounds that it was not justified. See 537 U.S. at 66, 123 S.Ct. 518. Both agencies engaged in cost/benefit analyses and concluded that the costs outweighed the benefits based on the relevant data. In Sprietsma, the Supreme Court found no preemption under these circumstances. On these facts, we reach the same conclusion. Because we find no clear and manifest statement in the 1974 withdrawal of the proposed regulations NHTSA's final, official statement on the subject before the motorcoach here was manufacturedthat NHTSA intended as a matter of policy to forbid any state requirement of passenger seatbelts in motorcoaches, we must conclude that the jury's verdict in this case is not preempted by federal law. [17] Nor does any later evidence change the analysis. The letter of NHTSA's chief counsel in 1992 is unremarkable insofar as it concludes that the Safety Act would preempt nonidentical New York legislationthe Act's express preemption clause compels such a conclusion. See 49 U.S.C. § 30103(b)(1). But then NHTSA's counsel opined that the agency had expressly determined that there is not a safety need for safety belts or another type of occupant crash protection at these seating positions and cited the 1974 withdrawal of proposed regulation. Letter from Paul Jackson Rice, Chief Counsel, NHTSA to C.N. Littler, Coordinator, Regulatory Affairs, Motor Coach Indus. (Aug. 19, 1992). We refuse to give preemptive force to this sentence for two reasons. First, there is nothing in this statement that indicates opposition to seatbelts and an affirmative desire to forbid their use. Second, to hold that NHTSA's decision not to regulate preempts state law based on a letter written eighteen years after the official decision illustrates the dangers of obstacle preemption grounded in agency musings. A letter, even by NHTSA's chief counsel, is not federal law, nor it is particularly persuasive regarding NHTSA's intent in the 1974 withdrawal. The text of the withdrawal notice is not technical or complex and speaks for itself; a later interpretation of that text is persuasive only to the extent it is correct. See Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134, 140, 65 S.Ct. 161, 89 L.Ed. 124 (1944) (giving weight to an agency's rulings, interpretations and opinions depending upon the thoroughness evident in [their] consideration, the validity of [their] reasoning, [their] consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give [them] power to persuade, if lacking power to control); cf. Wyeth, 129 S.Ct. at 1201 (giving some weight to an agency's views on the impact of tort law on federal objectives when the subject matter is technical and the relevant history complex). We will not overturn a jury's verdict on such tenuous grounds. All of NHTSA's later statements, from letters to notices of public meetings to reports and action plans, demonstrate the agency's increased willingness to reconsider its 1974 decision to leave motorcoaches essentially unregulated. These events culminated in the initiation of rulemaking for the installation of passenger seatbelts on motorcoaches. The jury anticipated NHTSA's future actions, and we find no conflict between its verdict and the federal safety standards. MCI argues that the history of NHTSA's motorcoach regulation points in a very different direction. It contends that NHTSA chose an alternate method of passenger protection, compartmentalization, see supra note 6, and required seatbelts only for the driver. Further, MCI asserts that three different cases are more relevant than Sprietsma or Myrick : Geier, Carden v. Gen. Motors Corp., 509 F.3d 227 (5th Cir.2007), and BIC Pen Corp. v. Carter, 251 S.W.3d 500 (Tex.2008). In these latter cases, MCI argues, the agencies carefully weighed competing interests and chose not to require safety devices the plaintiffs wanted. So too here, MCI continues, NHTSA evaluated the seating designs and desirability of seatbelts in motorcoaches and purposefully chose a limited scope of regulation. We disagree with MCI's interpretation of NHTSA's actions. In particular, there is nothing in the regulatory history of motorcoaches to suggest that NHTSA intended to rely on seating design rather than seatbelts and promulgated standards to that effect. As discussed above, the 1973 notice proposed changing seat design to better protect passengers and also to incorporate seatbelts as an alternative restraint system. In 1974, NHTSA withdrew both proposals, finding that the cost of the methods did not justify their benefits. NHTSA did issue seating standards for school buses, see 49 C.F.R. § 571.222, but not for motorcoaches. Thus, it is inaccurate to suggest that NHTSA chose an alternate method to protect passengers; instead, NHTSA chose not to regulate seating design or seatbelts in motorcoaches, a decision that does not have preemptive force for the reasons explained above. Nor do we find Geier, Carden, or BIC Pen more analogous to the present situation. In Geier, the Supreme Court considered whether FMVSS 208 preempted a claim that a 1987 vehicle should have had airbags. 529 U.S. at 865, 120 S.Ct. 1913. FMVSS 208, as in effect at the time, deliberately sought varietya mix of several different passive restraint systems. Id. at 878, 120 S.Ct. 1913. NHTSA also chose to gradually phase in the requirements for passive restraints and made them conditional; because seatbelts provided the same or greater benefit at a lower cost, the passive-restraint standard would be rescinded if two-thirds of the states mandated seatbelt use within a certain period of time. Id. at 879-80, 120 S.Ct. 1913. The reasons for this mix of restraints and gradual phase-in over time reflected NHTSA's experience and considerations of cost and public acceptance. Even though seatbelts provided the best protection in the event of a crash, most of the public did not wear them at the time. Id. at 877, 120 S.Ct. 1913. While passive restraints such as airbags could provide some of that lost protection, they created problems of their own (e.g., harm to children), cost more than seatbelts, and were viewed with suspicion by the public. Id. at 877-78, 120 S.Ct. 1913. Thus, rather than simply mandate airbagsa tactic that had failed when NHTSA required seatbelt buzzers and ignition interlocks [18] NHTSA decided that public safety would best be promoted if manufacturers installed alternative protection systems in their fleets rather than one particular system in every car. Id. at 881, 120 S.Ct. 1913 (quotation marks omitted). Because the plaintiffs' suit required a single standard mandating the installation of airbags, it presented an obstacle to the variety and mix of devices that the federal regulation sought. Id. Because the suit required all of the manufacturer's cars sold in the District of Columbia to be equipped with airbags, when FMVSS 208 only required ten percent of the manufacturer's nationwide fleet to be so equipped, it stood as an obstacle to the gradual passive restraint phase-in that the federal regulation deliberately imposed. Id. Accordingly, the rule of law advocated by the plaintiffs was preempted by federal law. Id. In Carden, the Fifth Circuit considered whether FMVSS 208 preempted the plaintiffs' claim that a car manufacturer should have installed a lap/shoulder seatbelt rather than a lap belt alone in the rear center seat of a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am. 509 F.3d at 229. Finding Geier directly on point, the court reviewed the history of FMVSS 208 and concluded that NHTSA deliberately gave manufacturers the choice of which kind of seatbelt to install based on specific policy reasons. Id. at 230-31. These reasons included the technical difficulties associated with installing a shoulder belt in the rear center position, and the greater cost of doing so even when the expected safety benefit was minimal given the low occupancy rate in that seat. Id. at 231. The Fifth Circuit then distinguished Sprietsma and its analysis of non-regulation by noting the presence of explicit regulation and the choice given therein. Id. at 232. Finally, in BIC Pen, this Court considered whether federal law preempted a design defect claim regarding a BIC lighter. 251 S.W.3d at 503. We reviewed the certification process lighters must undergo at the direction of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the regulatory agency charged with developing safety standards for consumer products. Id. The Commission adopted regulations that require lighters to successfully resist operation by eighty-five percent of a child-test panel. Id. This number was chosen based on numerous factors, including child resistence, overall safety, the realities of manufacturing, the variability and randomness of child testing, the product's utility, and the importance of customer acceptance. Id. at 507 (citing 16 C.F.R. § 1210.5(c)). The Commission was particularly concerned that lighters not be too difficult to operate or adults would forgo their use and resort to non-child-resistant lighters or matches, which posed even greater dangers to children. Id. Because the Commission weighed these factors and struck a delicate balance between them, we concluded that imposing a common law rule that would impose liability above the federal standard is contrary to the Commission's plan and conflicts with federal law. Id. Accordingly, we held that the design defect claim was preempted. Id. at 509. MCI argues these cases illustrate the preemptive effect of an agency's regulatory action following a careful analysis of various, and often competing, considerations of safety and cost. But MCI misses a telling distinction between these cases and the present one. In Geier, Carden, and BIC Pen, the agencies actually issued regulations. These regulations balanced competing considerations, as MCI notes, but in each case the courts considered the preemptive effect of a regulation. When an agency issues regulations, a federal law exists with which a state law can conflict. But when the agency chooses not to regulate, there is no preemptive federal law absent a clear and manifest indication of the agency's intent to forbid all regulation. NHTSA has not taken that further step regarding passenger seatbelts in motorcoaches. In this respect, the present case is more akin to Sprietsma and Myrick, in which the Supreme Court found no preemptive intent in the agencies' non-action. Regulatory silence will not preempt a state law absent a clear and manifest statement of intent to forbid all regulation in that area. Applying this standard to NHTSA's decision not to require passenger seatbelts in motorcoaches, we find nothing in the regulatory history or agency statements indicative of such intent. In this lacuna of regulation, the jury's finding that MCI should have installed seatbelts on its motorcoach does not conflict with any federal law and is not preempted.