Today in Corporate Liability Washing

If there is a truism in our society, it is that the the current structure of corporations creates an environment where wrong-doing is not punished, either at the corporate level or the personal level.

A case in point is Amazon's reliance on sub-contractors, who they literally manage to the second, to avoid liability issues for unsafe practices.

Well, someone was severely injured by an over worked (not)Amazon driver trying to meet quotas, and they are suing, claiming that the algorithms that Amazon requires them to use were largely responsible for the accident.

Weakening the liability wall between large corporations and the smaller corporate contractors that they direct would be a very good thing:

Ans Rana was in the back seat of his brother’s Tesla Model S when they stopped behind a disabled car just before 9 p.m. on Atlanta’s busy Interstate 75. Seconds later, a blue Amazon.com Inc. delivery van slammed into them from behind—mangling the rear of the car and sending Rana, his brother and father to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital. Rana bore the brunt of the collision, suffering life-changing brain and spinal-cord injuries.

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In June, Rana filed a lawsuit in Georgia state court, alleging that Amazon is liable for the accident. Central to the complaint: the algorithms, apps and devices the company uses to manage its sprawling logistics operation.

Amazon says it isn’t legally culpable because the driver worked for Harper Logistics LLC, one of thousands of small businesses launched in recent years specifically to deliver Amazon packages. By focusing on the key role played by the algorithms, Rana’s attorney, Scott Harrison, is looking to prove that the company controls the operation, managing everything from how many packages drivers must deliver to whether they should be kept on or fired. Demonstrating Amazon isn’t just a customer of Harper Logistics, but actually manages it from afar, is critical to any attempt to put the e-commerce giant on the hook for Rana’s medical bills and a lifetime of diminished earnings.


Amazon closely tracks delivery drivers’ every move, the lawsuit states, including “backup monitoring, speed, braking, acceleration, cornering, seatbelt usage, phone calls, texting, in-van cameras that use artificial intelligence to detect for yawning, and more.” If drivers fall behind schedule, Amazon employees send text messages “complaining that a certain driver is ‘behind the rabbit’ and needs to be ‘rescued’ to ensure that all the packages on Amazon’s route are delivered in compliance with Amazon’s unrealistic and dangerous speed expectations.”

Most commercial vehicle injury lawsuits are settled quietly between attorneys and insurance carriers. Rana’s case stands out for the severity of his injuries and his legal team’s argument that Amazon’s technological hold over its delivery partners makes it culpable in the crash. The team wants greater visibility into how Amazon’s machines control drivers to bolster its case that the company is responsible. Such court disclosures would expose Amazon’s secretive algorithms to greater public scrutiny. Amazon wants the court to seal any such information, arguing its technology should qualify as protected trade secrets. Proving the company is responsible for the crash is far from assured because the laws on employment vary from state to state and courts have gone both ways, said Andrew Elmore, a University of Miami law professor. “The question is whether Amazon is vicariously liable as an employer because of the control it has over the driver,” he said. “It had a lot of control, and it could be held liable.”

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The lawsuit also names [Driver Bryan] Williams, Harper Logistics and the delivery business’s insurance provider, Old Republic Insurance Co., all of whom declined to comment through their joint attorney, Paul Trainor. Williams, who made about $15 an hour, presumably lacks the financial wherewithal to pay damages. Harper Logistics doesn’t have many assets that could be liquidated to pay a judgment. Amazon delivery businesses don’t even own their vans; they lease them. Amazon, which is expected to generate sales of $472 billion this year, is a much richer target.

Amazon lease vehicles to its, "Delivery Service Partners," operates the apps that tell those drivers where and how to go, requires that cameras be in installed in the vehicles, uses these cameras to surveil the drivers, monitors their drivers' performance, and tells their "Partners" when a driver should be fired.

Amazon created this corporate structure specifically to evade responsibility for the carnage that it creates by demanding performance standards that cannot be met while operating safely.

Amazon does not care, it figures that it's asset poor contractors carry the risk for this reckless behavior.

Amazon, and its senior executives should be held criminally liable for their behavior.