Farrell Lines, Inc. v. Highlands Insurance Co.
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
532 F. Supp. 77, 1982 AMC 1430 (1982)
- Written by Carolyn Strutton, JD
Facts
Farrell Lines, Inc. (Farrell) (defendant) was a carrier that received 556 cartons of shoes onto its cargo vessel in New York City for delivery to the port of Monrovia, Liberia. The National Port Authority of Monrovia (NPA) was a governmental entity that had total control over the operation of that port. Under NPA policy, cargo coming into the port was unloaded onto a pier, placed under NPA control, transported to an NPA warehouse, and later released to the consignee. When Farrell’s vessel arrived at the port and the cartons were unloaded onto the pier, seven cartons were noted as missing and 24 cartons as damaged and pilfered, for a loss of about $5,100. Several weeks later, when the cargo was received at the NPA warehouse, 100 cartons were noted as missing and 256 cartons were damaged and pilfered, for a loss of approximately $60,000. Highlands Insurance Co. (Highlands) (plaintiff) paid the full amount of the loss to the shipper and then filed suit as a subrogee against Farrell to recover for the loss. Farrell commenced an action for declaratory judgment limiting its liability to only the initial loss, not the total amount that was noted once the cargo arrived at the NPA warehouse. The actions were consolidated before the district court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Weinfeld, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
