SRC has won a case before the Supreme Court (case no. II CSK 70/13) for its Client, a Danish company, in a dispute with a Polish carrier.
The case concerned the interpretation of the provisions of the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR Convention), and the provisions of the Act of 15 November 1984 – the Polish Transportation Law related to the obligation of the consignee of the goods for the payment of carriage costs to the carrier.
In its judgment, of a precedential value in that respect, the Supreme Court has confirmed that Article 13.2 of the CMR Convention regulates the liability of the consignee of the goods for the payment of carriage charges to the carrier, thus, the applicability of Article 51.1 of the Polish Transportation Law with respect to international transport regulated by the CMR Convention is excluded, regardless of the fact that the provisions of that Article contain a regulation which is more favourable for carriers.
Moreover, the Supreme Court has confirmed that a necessary prerequisite which, under Article 13.2 of the CMR Convention, gives rise to the consignee’s obligation to pay the amounts connected with the completed carriage is the identification of such amounts in the consignment note. Therefore, if the amount of carriage charges is not shown in the consignment note, the carrier cannot demand the payment of such charges by the consignee of the goods.
According to the Supreme Court, the provision of Article 13.2. of the CMR Convention, on the one hand, protects the carrier, since it obligates the consignee to pay the amounts due which were not paid by the carrier’s contractual counterparty, i.e. the sender of the shipment. On the other hand, however, this provision also protects the safety of business dealings since it limits the scope of the consignee’s obligation to pay carriage charges to the carrier only to the amounts shown in the consignment note.
The case was led by advocate Łukasz Caban and advocate Monika Urbańska.
