## Facts

- An art auction house, acting through a freight forwarder as its agent, arranged international carriage of three artworks from London, England to Newark, New Jersey with an air carrier.
- The agent prepared an air waybill listing London as departure, Newark as destination, and a specific London-to-Newark flight; the “stopping places” field was left blank.
- No special declaration of value was made on the waybill and no supplementary sum was paid to obtain higher carrier liability.
- The carrier flew the shipment from London to Newark as listed, then unilaterally routed it onward to Memphis, Tennessee and back to Newark for operational reasons.
- While in Memphis, one painting was damaged by a forklift; the shipper sought recovery approximating the painting’s asserted seven-figure value.
- The shipper contended the contract was for a non-stop London-to-Newark route; the carrier contended its standard terms allowed discretionary routing.

## Issues

1. Whether the carrier could invoke the Warsaw Convention’s cargo liability limitation when the waybill did not list an intermediate stop but the carrier routed the shipment through that stop where damage occurred.
2. Whether omission of an intermediate stop from the air waybill meant the waybill lacked required particulars under Articles 8 and 9, depriving the carrier of the Convention’s liability limitation.
3. Whether contractual boilerplate reserving routing discretion could satisfy or override the Convention’s documentary requirements for limiting liability.

## Decision

- The court granted the shipper’s motion for partial summary judgment and denied the carrier’s cross-motion.
- The court held the carrier was not entitled to the Warsaw Convention Article 22(2) limitation because the air waybill did not include the required “agreed stopping places.”
- The court rejected reliance on the carrier’s standard routing-discretion terms to avoid the consequence imposed by Article 9 for noncompliant documentation.
- The ruling established that the carrier could face full proven damages for the loss (with damages and other remaining matters left for further proceedings).

## Legal Principles

- Under the Warsaw Convention, a carrier may claim the Article 22(2) cargo liability limitation only if the air waybill contains the particulars required by Article 8, including “agreed stopping places.”
- Article 9 denies a carrier the Convention’s exclusions or limitations of liability when the waybill lacks required Article 8 particulars.
- The burden to ensure a compliant waybill rests on the carrier if it seeks to benefit from the Convention’s liability limitation.
- Boilerplate contractual provisions granting routing discretion do not cure a waybill’s failure to list agreed stopping places and do not negate Article 9’s sanction.

## Conclusion

The court held that the carrier’s failure to state an intermediate stopping place on the air waybill barred reliance on the Warsaw Convention’s cargo liability cap, exposing the carrier to potential liability for the shipment’s full proven loss.


Sotheby’s v. Federal Express Corp., 97 F. Supp. 2d 491 (S.D.N.Y. 2000)