June
2016
NJ: Summary Judgment Denied on Claim that Sandy Loss Was Contractually Time-Barred
Cincinnati Ins. Co. v. Uncommon Carrier, Inc., No. 15-2297, 2016 WL 1117952 (D.N.J. Mar. 22, 2016). A New Jersey federal court denied summary judgment to a storage warehouse that was sued for failing to take precautions to protect its cargo before Hurricane Sandy struck. Foran Spice Co. suffered $400,000 in uninsured losses and its insurer, Cincinnati Ins. Co., suffered an additional $500,000 in paid property damage claims arising from the loss of property stored in a warehouse owned and operated by Uncommon Carrier. Uncommon argued that the action was untimely because the warehouse had issued hundreds of receipts over its ten-year business relationship with Foran directing it to read the terms and conditions on Uncommon’s website that provided that customers had nine months to sue for any loss or injury to stored goods. Foran, however, waited over two years to file suit. Foran responded by submitting two receipts from the warehouse, neither of which contained a reference to the website or any language regarding a statute of limitations. The judge agreed that the two receipts provided enough evidence to indicate that a dispute of material fact existed regarding whether Foran was aware of the nine month limitations period, and thus denied Uncommon’s motion for summary judgment.