Cargo Recovery

Bertrand COURTOIS and Victoire REVENAZ advise French and foreign underwriters and insurance intermediaries (brokers, agents, adjusters, settling and recovery firms), as well as foreign law firms, in particular English, German, Danish, American and Japanese, in this matter.

LEXLINE advises its clients in:

• Writing subrogation releases and assignments of rights;
• The analysis of the terms and conditions of cargo insurance policies;
• The gathering of evidence (private investigations);
• The pre-litigation analysis of the merits of a claim;
• The initiation and conduct of court investigations proceedings;
• The conduct of amicable and pre-litigation negotiations;
• Obtaining adequate security following arrest or attachment;
• Handling cargo recovery proceedings before the competent jurisdictions;
• The enforcement of court decisions or arbitral awards …

• The defense of the interests of a cargo coinsurance outfit composed of French and foreign underwriters, as part of an action (arbitration) for damages reaching several millions of euros resulting from damages to a large shipment of refrigerated fruit carried in a conventional cargo ship (under a GENCON English law charter party) between Africa and France.
• The defense of the interests of Japanese insurance companies, in an action for damages filed in the French courts, as a result of thefts of valuable electronic equipment which occurred while being transported via multimodal means between Japan and France.
• The defense of cargo interests, representing dozens of containers that disappeared subsequent to the major incident that affected the ship transporting them between Asia and Northern Europe.
• The defense of the interests of British importers of exotic fruit in a series of claims for damages brought against the French ocean carrier, following damage caused to their goods during the ocean carriage due to improper temperatures or inadequate ventilation of the reefer containers.
• The defense of the interests of an American pharmaceutical company and its subrogated cargo insurers, in an action for damages involving court investigations, which resulted in the total loss of a large consignment of pharmaceuticals products, caused by a failure to comply with the contractual temperature during transportation between France, Turkey and Iran.
• The defense of the interests of a banknote manufacturer and its insurers, following the disappearance, during an overseas voyage between France and South America, of several parcels of banknotes placed in a sealed container.
• The defense of the interests of subrogated foreign insurance companies with respect to claims for damages incurred through the loss of truckloads of wines, luxury brand items and works of art while being transported internationally by road; said claims implied the willful misconduct of the carriers and freight forwarders who hired them.