Transportation 50

A motor carrier's tariff limitation of liability was recently upheld in a cargo loss and damage suit. The plaintiff/claimant sought to avoid the limitation based on the admiralty doctrine of material deviation.  Under that doctrine, a plaintiff typically claims that the carrier failed to comply with a contractual promise to provide security services and that its failure to do so should result in the limitation of liability being voided.  In the case of Platinum Cargo Logistics, the court refused to adopt the material deviation doctrine, noting that it is an admiralty doctrine that had not been applied in these circumstances by the 9th Circuit.  Thus, the carrier was only liable for its limited liability of $245,000, as opposed to the full unlimited value of the shipments at issue, which exceeded $7,000,000.