## Facts

- Children’s Memorial Hospital in Omaha shipped five blood samples from 13-year-old cancer patient Carl Gerome Hampton to a physician in Iowa City to select a bone marrow donor for a scheduled transplant.
- The hospital contracted with Federal Express Corporation, a common carrier, to transport the samples using a Federal Express airbill.
- The airbill limited liability to $100 per package unless the shipper declared a higher value and paid an additional charge.
- The package was never delivered; the blood was not tested, and the transplant operation was cancelled.
- Carl Gerome Hampton died about two months later.
- Carl Jerry Hampton sued Federal Express for negligence and sought damages for personal injury, wrongful death, and loss of services totaling $3,081,000.
- The district court granted partial summary judgment limiting recovery to $100 under the airbill’s released-value limitation.

## Issues

1. Whether the released-value doctrine and the airbill’s limitation of liability capped Federal Express’s exposure at $100 when the shipper did not declare a higher value.
2. Whether a non-signatory beneficiary of the shipment could avoid the contractual limitation and recover wrongful-death and other consequential damages.
3. Whether the claimed damages were recoverable where the carrier lacked notice of the shipment’s special purpose and the magnitude of potential loss was not reasonably foreseeable.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed the partial summary judgment for Federal Express.
- Federal Express’s liability was limited to $100 under the airbill and released-value doctrine.
- The court held the nature and extent of the claimed wrongful-death-related damages were not reasonably foreseeable to the carrier without notice of special circumstances.
- The limitation applied notwithstanding that Hampton was not a party to the contract of carriage.

## Legal Principles

- Under the released-value doctrine, a common carrier may enforce a contractual liability limitation when the shipper is given a reasonable opportunity to declare a higher value at a higher rate and instead accepts a lower rate with a stated cap.
- Contractual limits on carrier liability may govern the measure of damages even when the plaintiff pleads tort theories arising from nondelivery.
- Consequential damages are not recoverable beyond the released value when, at the time of contracting, the carrier lacks notice of special circumstances making such damages reasonably foreseeable.
- A non-party who claims injury from nondelivery generally cannot recover more than the maximum liability agreed to between the shipper and the carrier for the shipment.

## Conclusion

The court enforced Federal Express’s $100 per-package liability cap because the shipper had the option to declare a higher value but did not, and the carrier had no notice that nondelivery could result in extraordinary, wrongful-death-related losses; accordingly, Hampton’s recovery was limited to $100.


Hampton v. Fed. Express Corp., 917 F.2d 1119 (8th Cir. 1990)