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Freight Forwarders

Granville Oils -v- Davies Turner

April 2003

This case concerned an attempt by a freight forwarder to defeat claims brought against it by relying upon the nine month time bar contained in the standard trading conditions of the British International Freight Association ("BIFA"). Those claims related to both damage to goods suffered during the course of their carriage from Kuwait to Rotherham and a failure by the forwarder to arrange all risks insurance of such goods, as requested by its customer.

In overturning a decision of the Leeds Mercantile Court, the Court of Appeal concluded that the limitation period provided by the BIFA trading conditions was effective to bar each of the customer's claims.

A fuller discussion of this decision can be found in our May 2003 Bulletin: "Freight Forwarders: Contractual Time Bars".

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