Goods destroyed by fire, only three times the freight compensated; Zhiming lawyer extends a helping hand, full compensation of 1.8 million for losses.
[2] Shunxing Company (pseudonym) is an enterprise primarily engaged in cargo agency services. In May 2017, Shunxing signed cargo transport contracts with Shenyi Company (pseudonym) and Zhongguang Company (pseudonym) respectively. Subsequently, Shunxing entrusted the goods of both companies to Dafa Company (pseudonym) for actual carriage. Unfortunately, a fire occurred during transport, resulting in the total destruction of all entrusted goods. The value of Shenyi's damaged goods was 177 yuan, and Zhongguang's was 2 yuan, totaling 180 yuan.
After the accident, Shenyi Company filed a lawsuit with Shunxing Company as the defendant, demanding that Shunxing Company compensate for the loss of its goods by 177 yuan. Shunxing Company's boss, Sun, was indignant and dissatisfied. The tens of thousands of yuan in shipping fees that his company had advanced for Shenyi Company had not been paid by the other party. Now that the accident was not caused by his company, he should not bear the huge compensation. Sun contacted the Wang Tengfeng Literary Rights Litigation Team at Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm, known for handling difficult and complex major cases, through multiple consultations.
After accepting the commission of Shunxing Company, the Wang Tengfeng Art Rights Protection Litigation Team (including Director Wang Tengfeng, Lawyer Zhang Yong, and Lawyer Guo Yixuan) had detailed discussions with the parties and learned about the unfavorable situation that Shunxing Company was in. Director Wang Tengfeng, Lawyer Zhang Yong, and Lawyer Guo Yixuan worked together to develop several different plans for the client to ensure that they could do their best to safeguard the maximum interests of the parties in any situation. In order to reverse the situation where Shunxing Company was about to bear huge losses and do their best to protect the maximum interests of the parties involved, Wang Tengfeng's team immediately changed the direction of the lawsuit and filed a lawsuit against the actual carrier company, Dafa Company, demanding that Dafa Company assume the liability for breach of the transportation contract and compensate Shunxing Company for the 180 yuan that needs to be paid to Shenyi Company and Zhongguang Company for this accident, in the event that Shunxing Company needs to compensate Shenyi Company and Zhongguang Company for the goods loss of 177 yuan.
[5] In court, both sides engaged in heated debate over the actual compensation amount for the damaged goods. The defendant's lawyer argued for compensation limited to three times the freight. The Wang Tengfeng team firmly pointed out that the transport terms on the back of the cargo consignment note signed between Dafa and Shunxing constituted standard terms. As the carrier, Dafa had stipulated limitations to reduce or exempt its liability, but the consignment note showed that Dafa failed to reasonably draw the other party's attention to these terms. Therefore, the compensation limitation clause in the transport terms should be deemed invalid. The Wang Tengfeng team also presented two strong pieces of evidence, fully demonstrating that the plaintiff's actual loss from the fire was 180 yuan, and the defendant Dafa should bear liability for breach of the transport contract and compensate Shunxing for its losses. Despite the defendant's final attempts to deny, they could not provide sufficient counter-evidence to refute the claims, ultimately failing to overturn the outcome.
In the end, after trial, the court accepted the views of Wang Tengfeng's legal team and ruled that the defendant compensate the plaintiff, Shunxing Company, 180 yuan. Thus, Wang Tengfeng's legal team successfully saved Shunxing Company from a situation where it would have only received three times the freight compensation while bearing a huge loss of over one million yuan.