Texas court nixes shipper liability in Home Depot/Werner case

No, they didn't.

Montgomery vs. Caribe Transport II ruled that brokers can be held liable under STATE law. If the State in question doesn't have a law allowing vicarious liability/responsdeat superior/negligent selection for non-employers, then the Montgomery precedent does nothing. For Texas, it appears that the standard is "control, affirmative conduct, and risk creation", ie there must be a bright line between the actions of the broker and the accident. For instance if the carrier has an OOS percentage well above the national average, or there were clear and obvious safety defects in the equipment, or the shipper's securement was a proximate cause of the incident then the shipper can be held liable. A plaintiff cannot "simply climb the contractual chain searching for additional defendants with deeper pockets".

In other states that might be possible, but it depends on the laws and precedents in that state.