About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


B-261348 1 (1996-02-16)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptadqr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Comptroller General of the United States Washington, D.C. 20548 Decision Matter of: Atlas Van Lines--Claim for Reimbursement of Amounts Collected by Setoff for Loss of Household Goods File: B-261348 Date: February 16, 1996 DIGEST Although a carrier is generally liable for all damage to property in its control, the carrier will not be held liable if it shows that the damage was caused by an act of God as long as there is no intervening fault on the part of the carrier. When the carrier has adequate notice of severe flooding and fails to move property in its control, that failure constitutes the intervening fault of negligence, and the carrier is liable for the damage which results. The carrier has the burden of proving that it was not negligent. DECISION This is in response to an appeal of a Claims Group settlement which denied the claim of Atlas Van Lines for reimbursement of amounts collected by setoff for loss of household goods in storage during the Great Midwest Flood of 1993.1 We affirm the Claims Group's settlement. At the time of the Great Midwest Flood of 1993, the household goods of Staff Sergeant Nick Anderson, USAF, were in storage under government bill of lading No. SP-011,693 at ABC Moving and Storage, an agent of Atlas Van Lines, in Chesterfield, Missouri. On July 31, 1993, the Monarch Chesterfield levee on the Missouri River failed. In the flooding that followed, Sergeant Anderson's household goods were destroyed. The Air Force paid Sergeant Anderson $19,373.95, and then collected $3,400.00 from Atlas by offset. The Claims Group denied Atlas's claim for reimbursement of the $3,400.00, on the grounds that Atlas should have taken steps to protect the household goods in its warehouse and was negligent for not doing so. Atlas argues that its warehouse was 647215 'Z-219766-39, Mar. 16, 1995.