Claims against Directors etc.
BIFA (2005) Section 19.
The Customer undertakes that no claim shall be made against any Director, Servant, or Employee of the Company which imposes or attempts to impose upon them any liability in connection with any services which are the subject of these Conditions and if any such claim should nevertheless be made, to indemnify the Company against all consequences thereof.
CIFFA Section 2.
These Conditions also apply whenever any claim is made against any employee, agent or independent contractor engaged by the Company to perform any transport or related service for the Customer's goods, whether such claims are founded in contract or in tort, and the aggregate liability of the Company and all such persons shall not exceed the limitations of liability in these conditions. For purposes of this Clause the Company acts as agent for all such persons who may ratify such agency at any subsequent time.
FIATA Model Rules Section 12.
Liability of servants and other persons
These Rules apply whenever any claim is made against a servant, agent or other person the Freight Forwarder engaged for the performance of the service (including any independent contractor) whether such claims are founded in contract or in tort, and the aggregate liability of the Freight Forwarder and such servants, agents or other persons shall not exceed the limit applicable to the service concerned as expressly agreed between the Freight Forwarder and the Customer or following from these Rules.
|
Peter Jones' Commentary:
Under common law principles, standard trading conditions only protect the actual parties to a contract - not their employees, directors etc. This clause attempts to stop those nuisance actions brought against employees etc. as a means of circumventing limitation of liability provisions in the contract! This problem has very recently been resolved for Canadian law by a court decision that denied recovery against negligent employees where the claimant had agreed to a clause that limited the liability of their employer.
CIFFA enables employees, agents and independent contractors to rely upon the conditions. As is the case in several international conventions dealing with the claims against the carrier and its agents, the recovery against the forwarder and its employees, agents and independent contractors cannot exceed the limitation of liability in the conditions. As the forwarder will pay the limitation amount, the claim will be satisfied, and the other parties will not have to make any payment in discharge of their liability.