HIH Marine Insurance Services v. Gateway Freight Services

HIH Marine Insurance Services, Inc. (hereafter HIH Insurance), appeals a summary judgment dismissing its subrogation action against a cargo handler, Gateway Freight Services (hereafter Gateway). We affirm.

Procedural and Factual Background

The litigation arises from the shipment of 20 packages of hard disk drives from Malaysia to San Francisco via China Airlines. The shipper was a Malaysian company, Perai Seagate Storage Products, and the ultimate consignee was its parent company, Seagate Technology (Seagate). The shipment was arranged by a freight forwarder with affiliates in Malaysia and the United States doing business as Dimerco Express (Malaysia) and Dimerco Express (USA).

The Dimerco companies had “an on-going business relationship” with China Airlines and had arranged for shipment of cargo on the airline “thousands of times over the course of a decade or more.” China Airlines had provided Dimerco with a stock of its “air waybills,” which the freight forwarder would fill out and execute for particular shipments. These air waybills consisted of a standard form, with spaces for handling instructions and declaration of value of the goods shipped. On the reverse…