A truckload of allegedly spoiled potatoes has triggered a lawsuit against two Richmond-based companies.
Day and Ross Inc. filed suit January 10 in BC Supreme Court against Richmond-based Kapa Logistics Ltd. and Richmond-based Lotus Terminals Ltd.
The suit alleges that the plaintiff contracted the two defendants to transport a load of potatoes in a temperature-controlled tractor trailer container, or “reefer,” from a producer shipper in Mount Vernon, Washington to the defendants’ terminal in Surrey.
The court document claims that on the trip the produce froze, “as a direct result of the temperature in the reefer being set too low, which caused spoilage of the produce load rendering it completely not merchantable.”
The plaintiff is seeking damages for what it alleges to be the improper transportation and handling of a shipment of the potatoes.
However, in a response filed February 12, the defendants claim that the produce spoilage did not happen during the three-hour run in question but afterward. The defendants claim that the plaintiff or its agent or employee signed Kapa’s proof of delivery “certifying that the potato load was received in good order and confirming that the plaintiff [was] assuming care and control of the load.”
The response further alleges that subsequent to the plaintiff taking back control over the load, the potatoes were taken to Alberta via long-haul truck transport.
“At some point after the plaintiff had had possession of the potatoes for several days and traveled with the load during that time,” the response claims, “the plaintiff retroactively claimed that the potatoes were spoiled all along and that the freezing and spoilage occurred during Kapa’s less than three-hour drive with them several days earlier.”
None of these allegations has been proved in court.
