Aircraft

Carriage by air - damage to part of machine - entire machine unusable until damaged part could be replaced - liability limited by reference to total goods covered by air waybillApplied Implants Technology Ltd and others v Lufthansa Cargo AG and others: QBD: (David Steel J):19 April 2000

The claimants brought an action claiming damages against the defendants for damage to part of an ion implanting machine sent through the defendants, which had handled the carriage of the machine by air in several packages.On the question of whether the correct weight for calculating the limits of liability under art.22(2)(b) of the amended Warsaw Convention was the weight of the damaged package or the combined weight of all packages covered under one air waybill, the defendants contended that the value of the remaining packages had not been affected since the damage to one part had no permanent influence on the remaining parts, because the claimants could replace the damaged part without delay.Geoffrey Kinley (instructed by Berrymans Lace Mawer) for the claimants; Philip Shepherd (instructed by Bentleys Stokes & Lowless) for the defendants.Held, giving judgment for the claimants, the relevant limit was by reference to the combined weight of all the packages covered by the air waybill since the limit of liability should be assessed by reference to the state of affairs as at the end of the carriage by air in which the damage had been sustained, causing the remaining parts of the machine to be worthless until the damaged part had been replaced; that any attempt to replace the damaged part would be significant from the point of view of quantum but not limitation of weight.