CASE DIGEST - AWARD OF DAMAGES IN AN ACTION FOR LOSS OF CARGO IN INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE

CASE DIGEST: AWARD OF DAMAGES IN AN ACTION FOR LOSS OF CARGO IN INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE MUST BE IN LINE WITH MONTREAL CONVENTION AND SECTION 48 (1) CIVIL AVIATION ACT

Turkish Airlines v AL Uma Ventures Ltd
Court Of Appeal
(Lagos Division)

(MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM SIRAJO; ONYEKACHI AJA OTISI; ADEBUKUNOLA ADEOTI BANJOKO JJ.CA)

On the 24th of December 2011, the Respondent approached the Appellant, a foreign Airline that operates cargo services, to convey 182kgs of Hair attachments
from Lagos to one Emile Musanbuku, a customer in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Upon the agreement of the parties to the terms of the contract, the Respondent
paid the entire freight and other duties charged by the Appellant for the services to be rendered. The Appellant, however, failed to deliver the consignment of goods
to the Respondent's customer in Glasgow or return the same to Lagos. The Appellant did not also return to the Respondent the value of the goods and all incidental
expenses incurred despite demands to that effect, through correspondences, which were not responded to by the Appellant. Numerous meetings, telephone calls, entreaties, etcetera, were put forth to the Appellant, but all did not yield any positive result. Thus, the Respondent resorted to going to Court, and led its Originating
Process before the Federal High Court, Lagos Division (trial Court).