According to Art. 17 sec. 2, 3, 4 of the CMR Convention, the carrier is not liable for loss or damage to the goods in the following situations:

• The carrier is released from this liability if the loss, damage or delay was caused by the fault of the entitled person, his order not resulting from the fault of the carrier, a defect in the goods or circumstances which the carrier could not avoid and the consequences of which he could not prevent.
• The Carrier may not invoke, in order to be released from liability, either the defects of the vehicle he uses to perform the transport, or the fault of the person or employees of the person from whom he rented the vehicle.

Subject to the provisions of Article 18, paragraphs 2 to 5, the carrier shall be relieved of his liability if the loss or damage to the goods was caused by special danger arising from one or more of the following causes:

• the use of open and unsheeted vehicles, if this use was expressly agreed and indicated in the consignment note;
• missing or defective packaging, if the goods, due to their natural properties, are at risk of loss or damage in the absence or defective packaging;
• manipulation, loading, stowage or unloading of goods by the sender or by the recipient or by persons acting on behalf of the sender or the recipient;
• the natural properties of certain goods that may cause their total or partial loss or damage, in particular by breaking, rust, spontaneous internal decay, drying, leakage, normal loss or the action of vermin and rodents;
• insufficiency or defectiveness of marks or numbers on packages;
• transport of live animals.

Where the carrier is not liable under this Article for certain factors which caused the damage, its liability is only involved to the extent that the factors for which it is liable under this Article contributed to the damage.

Legal adviser Jerzy Klimkowski