PHILADELPHIA – A New Jersey produce company that regularly ships or receives products in the port of Philadelphia is suing a German-based shipping company for $15,000 to compensate the plaintiff for losses allegedly connected to bad kiwis transported from Italy to Philadelphia.
Sierra Produce filed a lawsuit March 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Hagap-Lloyd Aktiengesellschaft, Hamburg, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey, alleging negligence.
In or about February 2015, in Livorno, Italy, 2,496 boxes of kiwis consigned to Sierra Produce were delivered to a shipping vessel for transport to America by Hapag-Lloyd, the suit says. The complaint says Hapag-Lloyd acknowledged receipt of that produce. According to the lawsuit, when Sierra Produce received the kiwis, they damaged, deteriorating in value and unfit for sale or use.
According to the lawsuit, Sierra Produce, a shipper and/or receiver/consignee of fruit that regularly imports its produce on board vessels arriving in ports of Philadelphia, sustained damage and loss in an amount in excess of $15,0000.
Sierra Produce is seeking that Hapag-Lloyd appear in court to respond to the allegations and if they cannot be found in the court’s district, that any goods, chattels or equipment in the possession of any person, partnership or corporation be attached by process of attachment as provided in the admiralty rules in the amount of $15,000.
Sierra Produce is being represented by attorney Eugene J. Maginnis, Jr. of Dugan, Brinkmann, Maginnis and Pace of Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case number 2:16-cv-01034-SD