The entrusted goods disappeared, and the freight company should compensate for the loss.
Mr. Chen, a businessman from another city, reported that on October 30, 2011, he signed a consignment agency contract with the freight company, entrusting them to transport five laptops to Jinan, Shandong. After delivering the laptops to the freight company, due to being unable to contact the buyer and suspecting the online purchaser was fake, Mr. Chen notified the Jinan branch of the freight company by phone on November 2, 2011, instructing them not to release the goods and return the batch of laptops to the shipping location. The freight company informed him that the computers had already been returned to the shipping location. However, when he went to pick up the goods, he found that it was not his shipment. The freight company explained that the goods had already been picked up by someone else in Jinan. Mr. Chen requested the freight company to compensate him for the cost of the laptops, amounting to 50,000 yuan, but was refused.
The legal service hotline of the Jinan Municipal Justice Bureau [12348] replied: The waybill issued by the freight company contains the main terms of a transportation contract. Apart from the compensation clause, it does not violate the mandatory provisions of national laws and regulations, and represents the true intentions of both parties, making it a valid civil contract. As the carrier, the freight company is obligated to deliver the goods to the consignee as stipulated in the contract. Since the transported goods have been lost, they are in breach of contract and should bear corresponding civil liability.
Whether or not the goods were insured or valued should be decided by the shipper themselves, and the carrier has no right to impose mandatory requirements. During the execution of the transportation agreement, the freight company failed to effectively verify the identity of the consignee and also could not provide evidence proving that they received Mr. Chen's phone call regarding the release of the goods. Therefore, during the delivery process, they did not fulfill sufficient review and attention obligations, resulting in the goods being fraudulently claimed by someone else. The freight company is significantly at fault for the loss of the goods and cannot use this standard clause to exempt itself from compensation responsibility. They should compensate Mr. Chen for the losses incurred.
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