Franklin Mint Corporation v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 81 Civ. 1700 (WK).
| Decision Date | 18 December 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 81 Civ. 1700 (WK).,81 Civ. 1700 (WK). |
| Citation | 525 F. Supp. 1288 |
| Parties | FRANKLIN MINT CORPORATION, Franklin Mint Limited, and McGregor, Swire Air Services, Limited, Plaintiffs, v. TRANS WORLD AIRLINES, INC., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Waesche, Sheinbaum & O'Regan, John R. Foster, New York City, for plaintiffs.
Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, John Romans, New York City, for defendant.
On March 23, 1979, plaintiff Franklin Mint Corporation ("Franklin") delivered to defendant Trans World Airlines, Inc. ("TWA") for carriage from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to London's Heathrow Airport, four packages weighing some 714 pounds. Although the packages are said to have contained a large quantity of valuable coins, Franklin made no special declaration of value at the time of delivery. TWA charged Franklin $544.96 for the shipment. The four packages never arrived at their destination, and Franklin brought this action to recover their full value, which it fixes at $250,000. The parties agree that this action is governed by the terms of the Warsaw Convention, and that TWA is liable for the loss. Before us is a motion by TWA for partial summary judgment as to the extent of its liability. We grant that motion in part and deny it in part.
Article 22 of the Warsaw Convention provides that, unless a special declaration of value is made at the time of a delivery, a carrier's liability for checked baggage and goods is limited to the equivalent of 250 francs per kilogram. Article 22 states, moreover, that this limitation of 250 francs:
(Emphasis added.)
Counsel for TWA, in an extraordinarily lucid and comprehensive brief, has suggested three possible bases for the calculation converting the Article 22 limitation into United States dollars: (1) the Special Drawing Right ("SDR"), used by members of the International Monetary Fund ("IMF") as a unit of account; (2) the last official price of gold in the United States; and (3) the exchange value of the current French franc. Counsel for Franklin, in an equally able brief, suggests a fourth possibility: the free market price of gold.
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Trans World Airlines, Inc v. Franklin Mint Corporation Franklin Mint Corporation v. Trans World Airlines, Inc
...that TWA was responsible for the loss of the packages. The only dispute concerns the extent of TWA's liability. The District Court, 525 F.Supp. 1288, ruled that under the Convention TWA's liability was limited to $6,475.98, a figure derived from the weight of the packages, the liability lim......
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...in this litigation, was the value upon which Judge Knapp settled when he considered this problem in Franklin Mint Corp. v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 525 F.Supp. 1288 (S.D.N.Y.1981). I conclude that this latter basis is the one on which the conversion should be Plaintiffs' position that th......
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Franklin Mint Corp. v. Trans World Airlines, Inc.
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