An airline cannot be held responsible for damage to cargo caused by the government’s delay, a federal court in Brooklyn has ruled.
The ruling dismisses a lawsuit filed in April by Best Value Kosher Foods, a Newark-based seller of dairy products, against American Airlines, which Best Value accused of damaging a shipment of cheese delivered to New York from Paris.
According to Best Value, the cheese arrived via American at Kennedy Airport, where the airline notified a courier service working for Best Value of the shipment’s arrival. The courier picked up the cheese six days later, by which time ice packs accompanying it had melted and the cheese itself allegedly became unmarketable, which Best Value said cost the company roughly $18,000.
Best Value’s CEO testified that the delay in picking up the cheese stemmed from a hold put on it by both the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection while they inspected the cargo. Still, American had an obligation to refrigerate the shipment until it could be retrieved, Best Value charged.
U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein disagreed, noting that both the U.S. and France are parties to the Montreal Convention, which relieves a carrier from responsibility for damage to cargo where such damage follows “an act of public authority carried out in connection with the entry, exit or transit of the cargo.”
Best Value’s CEO “testified that inspections of the shipment by the United States agencies responsible for inspecting food imports prevented Best Value’s agents from picking up the in a timely manner,” Weinstein wrote in a ruling dated Dec. 7. “Damage to the cheese falls squarely within the ‘act of public authority’ exception.”
Though Best Value and American disputed whether American refrigerated the cheese while in its possession, Weinstein rejected a contention by Best Value that American’s putting the cheese in a cooler for shipment triggered a responsibility to refrigerate the cheese until its release to Best Value following the inspection.
“Even if American’s decision to gratuitously place the cargo in a cooler gave rise to some duty to keep the cargo refrigerated at a certain temperature, American is only obligated to ‘use reasonable care’ in discharging that duty,” Weinstein said. [citation omitted] “It was unreasonable to expect American to refrigerate Best Value’s shipment indefinitely until Best Value was able to pick it up. Six days is too long to have expected American to keep the cheese at a low temperature.
