Over the past weekend it has emerged that Mediterranean Shipping Company will be appealing the ruling by a US Court that the container line must pay $944 655 plus interest to a Pennsylvania shipper, MCS Industries.
The judgement pertains to a matter brought against the container line by the furniture manufacturer, in which MSC had apparently failed to provide the necessary documents in defence of a charge brought to America’s Federal Maritime Commission (FMC).
According to MCS Industries, the carrier had deliberately shifted contract cargo into spot allocations, thereby increasing freight rates for the shipper (*).
Principally, MSC’s defence against the shipper had been that they had been denied an application by a Swiss court to have documents released for its defence in the States.
Eighteen months after the matter was first brought to the FMC, Judge Erin Wirth ruled that MSC had been warned about furnishing the court with the necessary documents required for its own defence.
As a result of not being able to provide the court with the necessary documentation, a “defence judgement” was awarded against MSC on January 13.
In announcing its intention to appeal the matter, MSC has apparently said that Judge Wirth’s ruling “did not address the merits of the case”.
It also apparently added that MCS Industries had built its cases on “baseless claims”, and that it had never been proven that MSC’s conduct had resulted in losses to the shipper.
It has furthermore been reported that MSC was never tasked with carrying cargo MCS Industries claims it did, and that any errors that occurred were because of miscommunication by the shipper and its freight forwarding agents.
* Read this for context: https://tinyurl.com/456e296p
