On July 21, 2021, Tianjin Maritime Court received a case of a freight forwarder suing a container leasing company.

In 2018, a freight forwarding company leased 48ft*20ft containers from a container leasing company for storage of its clients' auto parts.

In 2019, because the containers were stored in the open air, some of the containers had defects on the top, which caused the goods in the containers to be soaked in water, resulting in cargo damage. The freight forwarding company shall compensate for the cargo damage and pay the additional operating expenses and rental expenses, and claim accordingly to retain the containers. Later, due to the poor management of the container leasing company, the freight forwarding company failed to get in touch with it, and the containers were retained for nearly two years.

At the end of 2021, both parties filed a lawsuit to the court. One party claimed to compensate for the loss and have a lien on the containers, while the other party claimed to return the containers and pay the rental fee.

In order to reduce the losses of both parties as much as possible and to help the enterprises to get back to the normal track, Tianjin Maritime Court took multiple measures instantly, and adopted the principle of "walking on multiple legs" to complete the trial of the case efficiently, objectively and impartially.

Before the judgment of the case, the judge started several round of mediation and formed a certain basis for reconciliation; At the same time, in view of the key point that the container price has dropped day by day since 2021, the judge thus advised the defendant to compensate the plaintiff for the relevant losses as soon as possible; on the other hand persuaded the plaintiff to reduce his demands and achieve the early conclusion of the case.

Finally, through the joint efforts of various parties, the two enterprises cleared up the misunderstanding and both said that they would continue to carry out business cooperation in the future. The case successfully solved the contradictions and disputes between the two sides that lasted for many years, resolved the conflict risks of the two sides, and promoted the formation of the vision of follow-up cooperation between the two enterprises.