Couriering Losses

A recent judgment seeks to clear the air on compensation in case of delayed deliveries by couriers

Are important documents worth more than the paper they are written on? And, what damages should courier companies pay when they lose documents or goods that are worth lakhs and crores?

There have been divergent judicial views on this. In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled in Bharathi Knitting Company vs DHL Worldwide Express 1996 CTJ 557 (SC) (CP), in favour of DHL. Bharathi had consigned goods to a German company and the documents were delivered to DHL. The documents did not reach their destination and by the time duplicate copies were received, the summer season in Germany was over.

The result was that the German company said it would pay only DM 35,000 against the invoice value of DM 56,469.63. Bharathi filed a case before the state commission claiming the actual loss of DM 21,469.63, equivalent to Rs 4.29 lakh and demanded that it receive this sum from the courier company. The state commission ordered that the courier company should pay the sum.

On appeal, the National Commission held a magnifying glass to the fine print and said that