This weekend, corporate directors and executive business teams will rightly step back and rest.
But there’s a version of “independence” worth thinking about before you do.
The Declaration wasn’t a complaint. It was a legal document. Twenty-seven specific charges, each one built to withstand argument, because the Founders knew a grievance without evidence is just a feeling.
Most shippers are operating on feelings right now, and don’t know it.
You hired a broker. You trusted the relationship. You assumed reasonable care was happening somewhere in the chain. None of that is documented anywhere in a way that a court or your own board would recognize as evidence.
Since Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II eliminated federal preemption, that assumption isn’t just a commercial risk anymore. It’s a Caremark question. Your board has an oversight duty to know whether reasonable systems exist, not just to hope they do.
You are not the shipper in these cases. You are the Hidden Defendant℠.
So this weekend, unplug completely. That’s what the holiday is for.
But when you’re back, the question isn’t whether your broker relationships are good. It’s whether anyone could prove, in writing, that reasonable care was exercised at every decision point.
Evidence Over Opinion℠. Independence isn’t declared. It’s documented.