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Robbery haulier sued
Page 20
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• A haulage company has been successfully sued for breach of contract following an incident when robbers armed with a sawn-off shot gun hijacked a lorry and stole over 240,000 worth of fashion denim jeans.
The owners of the stolen cargo won over .260,000 compensation in the High Court for their loss from haulier Patrol Freight Services.
. The court heard that the two-trailer truck, containing 300 cartons of jeans, was hijacked in January 1986. The thieves drove the lorry to Cheshunt, Herts, where it was discovered minus its cargo.
Catherine Otton-Goulder, for Jeans manufacturers Pepe (UK) and Pepe Clothing (HK), told the court that the jeans had been lost in transit. Goulder claimed damages for breach of contract against Patrol Freight Services of Arisdale Avenue, South Ockendon, Essex. She claimed they were responsible under a contract for seeing the valuable cargo safely to its destination. Patrol Freight said that it could not be held liable for the theft as it had sub-contracted the job to another haulage firm. It also denied breach of contract on the grounds that the robbery was a circumstance "beyond their reasonable control".
But Mr Justice Saville found Patrol Freight fully liable under the contract to compensate Pepe for their loss. He entered judgement for the two jeans companies and ordered Patrol Freight to pay compensation with interest totalling 264,329, and the legal costs.