CRB ~ Airfreight Claims
We handle a large volume of airfreight claims every year, and have good relationships and contacts with many of the European and Asian cargo airlines, and their representitives.
Carriage of Goods by Air Law
Air
transport law was
regulated very soon after the first commercial flights. The Warsaw
Convention was signed in 1929 and was given force of law in the United
Kingdom by the Carriage by Air Act 1932. This was repealed under
provisions contained in the Carriage by Air Act 1961 when this became
operative under the Carriage by Air (Convention) Order 1967. The
Convention applied to international carriage and a break in the
carriage would be irrelevant as the “ticket” was
the
imposing factor evidencing the contract between the parties.
The
carriers
liability for cargo was defined as 250 poincare francs per kilo which
was converted to common currency by reference to Statutes of
Limitation. The franc was named after the French Finance Minister at
the time the Convention was drafted. Most western countries were at
that time on the gold standard and it was considered gold was readily
convertible into any form of currency. The basic defences available to
the carrier were as follows.
The
basic
defences available to the carrier were as follows:
·
No
liability if the carrier can prove he and his servants or agents took
all necessary
measures to avoid damage or that it was impossible for him to
take such measures (Article 20).
·
If the
carrier can prove contributory negligence this can mitigate their
liability Art.21
· No right of action after two years from the date of
arrival of
the aircraft or the date carriage stopped Art 29
· No liability if loss or damage did not occur on the
aircraft
or in the course of operations of embarking or disembarking. A common
law liability may still exist for negligence.
·
A
carrier could avoid liability if the seven day (damage) or fourteen day
(delay) notice
periods
were exceeded.
The
carrier would
lose the protection of the weight limitation under Article 9 if the air
consignment note was not issued or contained irregularities and under
Article 25 if damage was caused by the wilful misconduct of the carrier
his servants or agents. The Convention was drafted in French and the
term dol was used in this context. The word had no direct translation
into English but the closest approximation is wilful misconduct.
The
Hague
Protocol 1955 amendments
given effect by the Carriage by Air Act 1961 and effective in 1967
principally dispensed with any ambiguity caused by the term dol in the
original Article 25 by providing a definition on wilful misconduct,
provided the servants and agents of the carrier with the same
protection as the carrier by a new Art.14 and increased the limitation
for passengers. Notice periods were extended to 14 days for damage and
21 days for delay and the defence of negligent pilotage was dispensed
with by deletion of the original Art20(2).
The
Guadalajara
Convention of 1961 was
introduced to supplement the Warsaw Convention wording to establish
rules for proceeding against a person other than the contracting
airline. The major recent change to international law has been the
coming into effect of the Montreal Protocols signed at Montreal on 25th
September 1975 particularly MP4 imposing strict liability subject to
limitation of 17sdr/kilo but affecting the previous possibility of
breaking limitation.