The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that an element of the Massachusetts state law for determining employee versus contractor status was preempted by federal law, while simultaneously reviving a suit against FedEx based upon that very statute. The First Circuit ruled that the lower court was correct in ruling that prong two of the three prong test in the Massachusetts law was preempted by the FAAAA, but that the court erred in dismissing the entire case based upon that finding. The District Court was instructed to determine whether the first and third prongs of the test could still sway a ruling one direction or another.“It would seem that [Massachusetts Independent contractor/Misclassification Law] without Prong 2 still provides as much (or more) protection against misclassification than does Massachusetts law without Massachusetts Independent Contractor/Misclassification Law altogether,” the court said. “We therefore think that the Legislature’s plain aim in enacting this statute favors two-thirds of this loaf over no loaf at all as applied to motor carriers with respect to the transportation of property.” The case has been sent back to the District Court for further litigation. The case is Clayton Schwann et al. v. Fedex Ground Package System Inc., case number 15-1214, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.​