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A Brazilian carrier filed a lawsuit against a Brazilian shipping company with whom it had entered into a carriage contract, claiming loss of profits due to the unjustified delay in delivering the cargo.

To protect its rights to claim indemnity in court, the importer filed motions to toll the statute of limitations, the last one being filed in September 1999. It occurs that the lawsuit was only filed in July 2001, thus almost three years after the last motion.

The company’s claim was founded on the Consumers Code (CDC), since through these statutes it could dodge the one-year time bar limitation provided for in art. 449, item 2 of the Commercial Code. It is worth of mention that in art. 27 of the CDC, the time bar period is 5 years. 

The center of the dispute was then a matter of law, i.e. application or not of the CDC to the case at hand.

Early in the first instance, the company was not successful and the judge decided the right was time barred, once the CDC does not apply, for there is no consumer relation between the parties. 

Dissatisfied, the plaintiff appealed the decision at the Court of Appeals of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The second instance decision upheld the first decision, understanding that the CDC did not apply and neither did the time bar period of one year. 

These decisions did not wane the company’s enthusiasm to take the case to the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), having that court analyzed the special appeal.

In this instance, the thesis of the shipping company also won. The STJ stated in its decision that the CDC would not apply to an international sea carriage contract for importation of goods. The STJ also noted that in order for the company to be considered a consumer, it had to be the final economic addressee of the transportation, which was not the case, once the plaintiff company’s purpose was to resell the carried goods.   

This decision is of great relevance for the national maritime transportation industry, once it consecrates even more the delicate issue of application of the CDC in maritime transportation.