One man is suing several companies involved in the moving, shipping, cargo and storage business after his belongings were allegedly mistakenly sent to Argentina instead of St. Croix.
Daniel Stanley, representing himself in the matter, has filed a civil complaint in District Court, naming Crown Worldwide Moving & Storage, Econocaribe Consolidators (ECU), Unirisc, MSIG Holding, and their parent companies as defendants. He is accusing them of breach of contract, denial of an insurance claim in bad faith, as well as false advertising and misrepresentation.
Mr. Stanley says that in March 2024, he arranged with Crown to move his belongings from his residence in San Francisco, California, to St. Croix. The cost of the move was $8,400, which according to the complaint covered two shipping containers. Mr. Stanley says he paid an initial deposit of $2,100, with the balance due when final charges were calculated after the shipment was fully packed and loaded. Mr. Stanley opted to purchase “full risk insurance coverage” to protect the shipment, and reportedly signed a separate contract with Unirisc, Crown's moving insurance broker, to that effect.
On March 25, 2024 – moving day – Crown's staffers discovered that a third container was needed “due to a miscalculation of shipping containers needed by Crown, and a misrepresentation of the liftvan shipping dimensions by Crown,” according to the lawsuit. Mr. Stanley claims that the two containers he initially received were between 11 and 15 percent smaller in volume than Crown had said they were, meaning that he had to incur additional shipping charges due to now needing the third container.
Two days later, Mr. Stanley paid the balance on what was now an $11,306.98 total, which covered shipping and insurance. The items were estimated to arrive in Christiansted on May 1, 2024.
On May 9, a local agent was informed of the shipment's arrival, and scheduled final delivery to Mr. Stanley's residence for May 13. However, the agent soon realized that only one of the three containers had arrived. That was when Mr. Stanley found out that two of his containers “got mixed with another shipment going to Argentina,” according to correspondence cited by the complaint. Goods destined for the South American country ended up in St. Croix, while the bulk of Mr. Stanley's household belongings were sitting on an Argentinian port.
Crown employees initially reassured Mr. Stanley that their error would be immediately fixed. “As of now, there is no ETA on this as the agent in Argentina is working with the Argentinian customs to retrieve the 2 liftvans,” one email on May 10 reportedly stated.
In July, Mr. Stanley was advised to submit an insurance claim “as it is increasingly unlikely that the liftvans will be released by the Argentinian customs,” according to an email cited by the lawsuit.
“A lifetime's worth of Plaintiff's personal possessions were lost due to the bulk of his possessions being in the two liftvans that were mistakenly sent to Argentina, while the one liftvan with the overflow items was delivered to St. Croix,” the lawsuit stated, calling the error a clear breach of contract.
Mr. Stanley says the shippers' decision to abandon his goods in Argentina and shift liability onto the insurers is willful misconduct on their part.
Nevertheless, he pursued resolution through an insurance claim with Unirisc, filing on August 18. After receiving instructions to resubmit the claim with a list of specific missing items and associated replacement costs, he did so on November 5, a day before the 90-day deadline. Unirisc officials acknowledged receipt of the $75,106 claim the following morning, the lawsuit says.
About a week later, the claim was denied. “We have received confirmation from Crown that the goods are not missing or lost but rather being held by customs,” said an email cited by the lawsuit. “Based on this fact, there is no coverage for goods confiscated due to government actions…your understanding of our position is appreciated.”
Mr. Stanley was then advised to file a new claim with the consolidators ECU, since it was their shipping mistake that sent his containers to Argentina. It is not clear from the lawsuit whether he did so, however as of the time the complaint was filed on July 7, his household belongings had not arrived to his new home in St. Croix as he had paid Crown to do.
Therefore, he is asking the court to award compensatory damages in the sum of $127,735, which would account for the “full replacement value of the cargo wrongfully lost, together with incidental costs.”
The parties listed in the complaint have yet to file a response as of press time.
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