Adv. Gill Nadel, Kedar Halali
An action for the sum of 21,000 NIS was filed to the Magistrate's Court of Haifa for a debt concerning failure to pay for continental shipping.
The story of the case:
The No'a Shipping Corporation, a corporation that provides shipping services, and the Zohar S.B.A. Corporation, a corporation that deals, inter alia, with importing and exporting metals contracted in an verbal agreement regarding shipping Zohar's merchandise from Haifa Port to its factory in Akko and vice versa.
Since this agreement was verbal and not anchored in writing, a dispute arose regarding the shipping costs agreed between the parties.
The importer claimed that for a number of months the shipping company performed various general shipping services to a large extent, since his own truck was in the shop for repairs. The importer claimed that the sides agreed that the cost of shipping a container would be 900 NIS round trip, from Haifa to Akko and back. In opposition, the shipping corporation claimed that they had agreed that the cost of shipping a full container would be 900 NIS in one direction, and shipping an empty container would be done for free.
In practice, after a period of working together, a gap was created between the sum that the shipping corporation demanded and the importer's expectations regarding the charge for those shippings. Therefore, the sides reached the court for it to decide between the positions.
The Court's Ruling:
The court chose the position of the shipping company, ruling that the testimony of the witness on its behalf gave a positive and reliable impression and that his word matched the other evidence brought by the shipping company. In this ruling, the court also relied on three invoices that the shipping company issued to the importer in which the importer was charged for payment according to the shipping company's position. In addition, other companies with which the shipping company had a contract with had been charged by the same system. Therefore the court accepted the action and charged the importer for the rest of the debt according to the stance of the shipping company, also in addition to charging him for court expenses and attorney's fees of 3,000 NIS.
Conclusion:
The moral of this legal dispute is that service agreements should be in writing, since agreeing verbally, tempting as it may be, leaves an opening for disputes that often lead to legal confrontations in court, which in contrast are far from baring any temptation what so ever.
(Haifa 4742-10-08 No'a Shipping Ram-Sa Ltd. v. Zohar S.B.A Commerce and Industries Cycle Ltd.
Justice Inias Slama, decision given 3.11.10. Advocates: for the importer- Adv. A. Shahaf, for the shipping corporation- Adv. Samuel Arad.)
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