The claim file, and the ninety minutes at the door

The claim, built

A cargo claim is arithmetic, not argument. The insured value is the agreed basis, and every partial loss is a fraction of it. Thistlewood's insured value is USD 172,457.28 on 7,200 parkas. So each parka is insured for USD 23.9524, and that number is what the settlement is built from — not the FOB price, not the retail price, not the cost to make it again.

The sue and labour line is worth a pause, because merchandisers routinely leave it out. Every cargo policy puts a duty on the assured to take reasonable steps to prevent or reduce a loss, and it pays for those steps on top of the claim. Sorting good cartons from bad, drying and re-pressing a garment you can save, re-ticketing what can still be sold: that is money you must spend and are entitled to get back. Invoice it separately, keep the labour hours, and put it in the claim.

Two clocks start on the day of discharge

The notice clock. You must tell the carrier in writing about loss or damage, at or before the moment the goods are handed over. Where the damage is not obvious, a short extra period runs from delivery. The exact period is set by the convention your bill of lading follows, so read it off your own bill. The important thing is that it is measured in days, and it starts without anybody telling you.

The deadline to sue. Much shorter than a merchandiser expects, and absolute: around a year from delivery, not the several years an ordinary contract claim would allow. Miss it and the claim against the carrier is dead, however good it was. Your underwriter can pay you and still lose the recovery, and lesson 7 shows what that does to your renewal.

Both dates belong in the shipment file on the day the vessel sails, not on the day the damage is found.

The ninety minutes that decided this claim

On 27 November, two days after the underwriter's guarantee had lifted the general average lien, the container arrived at Thistlewood's distribution centre at Willebroek. The doors were opened. The seal number was checked against the bill of lading. The front of the stow looked perfectly normal, because the split was in the roof at the forward corner and the water had run down inside the far end of the box.

The receiving supervisor signed the haulier's delivery note clean, took four photographs of the open doors, and put the container in the yard to be stripped in the morning.

Every one of those actions is what a good receiving supervisor does. None of them is careless. Together they cost this claim more than the weather did.

Nordvahl's first written reply was that the goods had been delivered in apparent good order and condition, and receipted without exception. Getting past that took the underwriter's recovery agent an extra surveyor's report, the vessel's weather routing data, the lashing record, and letters running into the following March.

Thistlewood were paid USD 24,329.39 either way. What the ninety seconds at the door bought them was USD 1,307.50 a year of extra premium, for as long as that loss sits in their record.

What to collect while the container is still on the truck

The evidence below exists for roughly ninety minutes and then stops existing. Nothing on this list is expensive or difficult, and almost none of it can be rebuilt a week later.

The claim documents, and one you can check by arithmetic

The pack the underwriter needs is short and always the same: the original policy or certificate; the original bills of lading; the commercial invoice and packing list; the survey report; the claused delivery receipt; the written claim on the carrier and their reply; the photographs; the sue-and-labour invoices; and a signed subrogation form.

That last one is how the whole thing works. When the underwriter pays, they take over your rights against the carrier and pursue them — in your name, because the contract of carriage is yours. That is a large part of what a premium buys: somebody else runs a recovery you would never have run, and you do not wait for it.

It also puts a duty on you. You must not damage the recovery. Signing a clean receipt damages it. Agreeing anything with the carrier damages it. Letting the deadline pass destroys it. These are policy conditions, not courtesies.

One detail on the paperwork itself, because it is the cheapest check in the file. The last digit of a container number is a check digit, worked out from the other ten characters under the international container marking standard. NDVU 421880 produces a check digit of 2, which is why the box is NDVU 421880-2. If the number in your claim file does not check out, somebody has swapped two digits, and you are about to claim on a container that does not exist.

Act as a cargo claims handler who works for the assured, not for the underwriter. I have a damaged shipment. I need the claim built and the recovery protected. Shipment: buyer or assured [NAME], purchase order [NUMBER], style [CODE], [PIECES] pieces in [NUMBER] cartons, insured value [AMOUNT], excess [AMOUNT], certificate number [NUMBER], claims agent named on the certificate [NAME AND PLACE]. Carriage: line [NAME], vessel and voyage [NAME], bill of lading number [NUMBER], container number [NUMBER], sailed [DATE], discharged [DATE], delivered [DATE], and the limitation wording on the bill of lading. Damage: found on [DATE] at [PLACE], [NUMBER] cartons affected, of which [NUMBER] a total loss and [NUMBER] damaged, survey findings if any [PASTE THEM], and what the delivery receipt actually says. Costs already spent on sorting, drying, re-pressing or repacking [AMOUNTS]. If a general average has been declared, give the declaration date, the adjuster and the security demanded. Now do the following. First, work out the insured value per piece, and build the claim line by line — total loss, depreciated loss at the survey's percentage, and sue and labour separately — to a gross figure and a figure net of the excess. Second, check the container number's check digit under the container marking standard, and say whether it is valid. Third, list the two clocks that started at discharge, name the document each one is read from, and give me the dates to diary. Fourth, read what the delivery receipt says, and tell me exactly what it has cost the recovery from the carrier, and what wording should have been used. Fifth, work out the carrier's limitation figure both ways, with the cartons listed and with the container as one package, and tell me the ceiling on any recovery. Sixth, list the claim documents still missing from my file, and the evidence that can no longer be obtained. Mark the second list honestly. Seventh, if a general average has been declared, give me the five actions for the first forty-eight hours, and say what the security would cost in cash if I were uninsured. Eighth, write the notice to the carrier, dated today. Do not soften anything to make the file look better than it is.