In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last month that opens freight brokers up to liability lawsuits across the nation, C.H. Robinson is named as a defendant in a new wrongful death suit stemming from the August 2025 triple-fatal crash on the Florida turnpike involving non-domiciled CDL driver Harjinder Singh.
The lawsuit, filed in St. Lucie County, Florida, was filed by Yaniel Cantelar, a representative of the estate of Fanolia Joseph, who was killed in the crash last summer. In addition to C.H. Robinson, who allegedly brokered the load Singh was hauling at the time of the crash, the lawsuit also names as defendants Singh; his employer, White Hawk Carriers, which lost its operating authority following the crash; and White Hawk Carriers manager Harpreet Singh.
The lawsuit alleges that, at the time C.H. Robinson supposedly selected White Hawk Carriers to haul the load of produce, White Hawk:
- Had been involved in a prior reportable crash on or about December 9, 2024;
- Had drivers who had been “repeatedly cited in roadside inspections for unsafe-driving violations, including speeding, speeding in a work zone, inattentive or distracted driving, an improper lane change, and a failure to yield under the move-over law”;
- Had drivers “repeatedly cited for hours-of-service violations, including making false reports and false records of duty status that concealed hours-of-service violations, several of which resulted in drivers being placed out of service”;
- Was cited “for additional defects including brakes out of adjustment, air-brake leaks, and wheel-seal leaks.”
C.H. Robinson in a statement Monday denied having brokered the load to White Hawk Carriers, or even working with the fleet at the time the crash occurred:
“White Hawk Carriers is not an approved carrier for C.H. Robinson nor been authorized in our system for years. This carrier last moved a shipment for C.H. Robinson on Jan. 29, 2024, and they were not active or authorized at the time of the Aug. 12, 2025, incident in question. We also have no record of this shipment being brokered by C.H. Robinson.
"Our deepest sympathies go out to all the families affected by roadway tragedies. Safety matters deeply to us and is foundational to how we operate and the decisions we make every day. Our employees and their families travel these same roads, and our business depends on safe freight delivery.
"Shipments we arrange overwhelmingly move without incident, but even one accident is one too many, which is why we continually advocate for strong federal oversight, tougher enforcement, and meaningful reforms that make roads safer for American families.”
[Related: C.H. Robinson gave thousands of loads to double-brokering chameleon carrier: Court docs]
The new suit points to the public availability of the violation data in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Safety Measurement System before the carrier hauled the load.
As such, the lawsuit alleges C.H. Robinson “knew or should have known, through the exercise of reasonable care,” that White Hawk and Harjinder Singh “were unfit, unqualified, and unsafe to transport property by commercial motor vehicle, and that selecting and retaining” White Hawk to haul the load “was reasonably likely to result in a crash causing injury or death to others using the public roadways.”
The suit adds that the "exercise of reasonable care in selecting a motor carrier, under both C.H. Robinson’s own represented standards and the custom and practice of the brokerage industry, required C.H. Robinson to review a carrier’s publicly available safety record and qualifications before entrusting it with a shipment.”
In addition to the claims of negligence on the part of C.H. Robinson, the lawsuit also claims negligence on the part of Harjinder Singh, White Hawk Carriers and Harpreet Singh. The suit claims that Harjinder Singh “had a duty to operate the Truck in a safe, lawful, and prudent manner;” to abide by all applicable Florida laws and FMCSRs; and to “exercise due care for the safety of all persons on the public roads," including Joseph.
[Related: 'Illegal alien' driver's fleet shut down after deadly Florida turnpike crash]
Yet the suit alleges breach of those duties by Singh, charging negligence through his actions on the day of the crash, the lawsuit claims.
The suit also claims White Hawk Carriers was negligent in allowing Singh to operate, because the company knew or should have known Singh was in the U.S. illegally and lacked the ability to read, speak, and/or understand English, among other allegations.
In the wake of Singh's high-profile crash, officials found the driver unable to pass the FMCSA's then-recently-revised English proficiency assessment, though officials in New Mexico would later share video evidence of the Singh's ability to communicate effectively enough to get through a Level 2 walkaround in prior months.
Singh's crash set off a series of events that would ultimately lead to FMCSA's emergency rulemaking banning non-domiciled CDL issuance to most non-citizens, finalized early this year.
[Related: Vehicular homicide charges for driver after Florida turnpike U-turn crash kills 3]
The lawsuit further claims that the fleet’s conduct “in hiring, qualifying, entrusting, dispatching, and retaining a driver it knew or should have known was unlicensed" and who was "unauthorized to work in the United States, not proficient in English as required by federal regulation, and otherwise unqualified to operate a loaded tractor-trailer on the public highways, evidences a reckless and conscious disregard for the safety of the motoring public,” including Joseph.
Yet as Overdrive reported in the aftermath of the crash, Singh was a non-citizen living in the country with asylum status. The state of Washington erred in allowing him to obtain a full-term CDL rather than what he should have gotten, a non-domiciled CDL. California later issued the correct credential based on his immigration status, the state said, at least at the time it was issued. Under the new non-domiciled CDL rules, Singh would not be eligible for a CDL.
The suit charges that Harpreet Singh failed to “make an appropriate investigation” of Harjinder Singh, which the plaintiffs allege would have revealed his “unsuitability to operate a commercial motor vehicle, including his lack of lawful immigration status and work authorization, his lack of the English-language proficiency … and his lack of the qualifications and fitness required of a commercial motor vehicle driver.”
The lawsuit seeks damages for Angeline Daudin, the surviving daughter and sole statutory survivor of Joseph, and for Joseph’s estate.
[Related: SCOTUS shocker: High court says brokers are accountable for hiring unsafe carriers]
