No claim on the airline THERE IS no business friendliness when it comes to assessing liability in the airline industry, according to Chris Wedderburn of Transtec Freight in Cape Town.
This stems from the October 7 hijacking of an Airline Agents vehicle in Cape Town, and the subsequent loss of a Transtec-forwarded consignment of clothing valued at more than R66 000. This 22-carton consignment had been airfreighted on Comair waybill 59080, and was on its way by van from the flight to the airline's Cape Town premises.
The consignment was insured, but - although a claim was accepted by the insurers - Transtec's client was left with a R13 247,11 excess, against which the fowarding company tried to lay a claim on the airline. But, in a swift exchange of telefax correspondence, one point became very clear.
With regard to your claim itself, we refer you to the Conditions of Contract and carriage of Freight on the reverse side of the Airfreight Consignment Note with specific reference to Clauses 4 and 5 thereof, said a letter from Comair to Transtec. It is for this reason that your claim has been denied. Quite right. There is no IATA (International Air Transport Association) limited liability on an airline carrying domestic cargo, and the Conditions of Carriage disallow a claim.
But Wedderburn feels that a share of responsibility and a bit of business friendliness should be forthcoming, and persists in pushing his claim. His client's even more unfortunate position in the issue added to his grumbles. The lost consignment of blouses followed the delivery of a consignment of matching pants - and the loss of half of the order led to cancellation of the whole deal.
However, insists D H Borer of Comair, it was a force majeure event - an event which is beyond our control. And, he added, hijacking of vehicles is rife within our society, and - while every effort is taken to avoid incidents of this nature - they unfortunately still do occur. The message from all this is - if you are moving goods around the country, and they are stolen - don't expect everybody to rush out accepting liability. It ’s all very clearly written in law where liability can be apportioned. And, if you are talking about many thousands of rand, don't expect a business to be that friendly. You are hoping for too much.
In our case study, the matter has also been raised with both companies' insurers, and a response is still awaited.
