The situation
A cargo claim for goods damaged on a Poznań to Munich haul
A Polish carrier delivered machine parts to a customer near Munich. Two pallets arrived damaged. The consignee noted it on the consignment note, and three weeks later the shipper’s insurer sent a claim for the full invoice value.
The carrier’s counsel needs to answer within days: whether the carrier is liable at all, what the most it can owe is, and whether the claim was made in time. The rules are in the convention. The arguments are in the decisions.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- The convention applies to the international haul
- A contract for carriage of goods by road for reward between two countries, at least one of them a contracting state, falls under the CMR. A Polish to German haul does.
- Liability is capped by weight
- Compensation for loss or damage is limited to 8.33 units of account (SDR) per kilogram of gross weight short, unless a higher value or special interest was declared. The insurer’s claim for full invoice value has to be measured against that limit.
- Reservations and timing matter
- Apparent damage should be reserved at delivery. Damage that is not apparent must be notified in writing within seven days, excluding Sundays and public holidays.
- Wilful misconduct removes the cap
- The limits do not protect a carrier whose wilful misconduct, or equivalent default under the law of the court, caused the damage. The claim period is one year, or three years in that case.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
International road haul Poznań to Munich under CMR. Two pallets (840 kg gross) damaged, reservation on the consignment note at delivery. Insurer claims full invoice value of EUR 46,000. What is the carrier’s maximum liability and when can the cap be broken? Include Polish and German court decisions.
You start with
A cargo claim for goods damaged on a Poznań to Munich haul
- 01
Upload the claim and the consignment note
Add the insurer’s letter, the CMR note with the reservation and the delivery records. azta refers back to the passages it relies on.
File upload· Pro - 02
Research liability and limits
Ask how the convention applies to the facts. azta cites the national publication of the convention and the rules on jurisdiction and limitation.
Cited research· Free - 03
Find the decisions on the disputed point
Ask how Polish and German courts treated the cap and the notion of wilful misconduct. azta summarises the decisions and links each one.
Case-law search - 04
Draft the reply
Ask for a reply to the insurer accepting liability within the cap and rejecting the excess. Edit it in Canvas and export to Word.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro You send
A reply to the claimant on liability, limits and deadlines
What you get
A reply to the claimant on liability, limits and deadlines
Reply to claimant · draft
Your claim for damage to consignment 2026/1187
Our client accepts that the two pallets were damaged while in its charge and that the damage was reserved at delivery.
The carriage was an international carriage of goods by road under the CMR. Our client’s liability is therefore limited to 8.33 SDR per kilogram of the gross weight damaged. On 840 kg, the limit at today’s rate is substantially below the amount claimed. We enclose the calculation.
No value or special interest in delivery was declared in the consignment note, and nothing in the file suggests wilful misconduct. Our client is prepared to settle at the limit on receipt of the supporting documents listed below.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
15 minutes a month
At €110 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 54
- Capacity at your rate
- €5,940
- More cargo-claim replies a quarter
- 3.9
- Return on Pro
- 18.3×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- Dziennik Ustaw
- SAOS
- Rechtsprechung im Internet
- Gesetze im Internet
What stays with you
- The facts of the incident, including the driver’s account.
- The settlement strategy and the decision to accept liability.
- Converting the SDR limit at the correct date and rate.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta work for carriers or only for law firms?
- Both. In-house counsel and claims teams use it for the research and the reply; firms use it for the same work on behalf of clients.
- Can it calculate the SDR limit?
- It explains the limit and the date the conversion is made under the rules. Use the official rate for that date for the figure you send.
- Which court decisions does it search?
- The published decisions of the national courts in its source register. For this question that includes the Polish SAOS collection and German federal decisions.
