Legal action against an American company (Texas)

[r3tr0z]

Hi All,

So I am trying to do some research on how to take an American company to court pending on the outcome of their investigation. The details of the problem I am facing is here - https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePieceTCG...al_luffy_card/

TLDR - Sent a trading card to company to grade, they have lost / stolen in under their care and are trying to limit my claim due to the value (£4000) I gave for "shipping insurance," if it can't be found.

I also wanted to get people take on the companies own terms and conditions to see if I am correct in the fact that they should offer me a fair market value of the lost or stolen card (£7500-£8000, with the grade it was given if I had to buy one to replace it.)

So when reading the terms and conditions listed on their site.

• "The owner's declared value is used for determining insurance cost of the return shipment and the maximum amount that can be claimed for damage or loss in shipment for any items. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL LIABILITY EXCEED THE DECLARED VALUE OF THE ITEM."

So this would suggest that if the item was lost or damage as a result of shipment any claim would be limited to the value I gave at checkout and that is totally fair (they should make this more clear at checkout however.)

I imagine the reason it is worded like this is because, if shipping issues occurred they would have to claim from FedEx on my behalf as I don't have a legal contract with FedEx as I didn't purchase the return shipping, so FedEx rightly so would limit the claim to the value Beckett would have given them and paid for on my behalf.

This is then further up in the terms and conditions about loss and damage under Beckett's custody.

• "Beckett shall have no liability whatsoever to the customer for any damage to any items that Beckett can reasonably demonstrate occurred while not in the custody or control of Beckett. However, if Beckett determines the customer’s submission was lost or damaged while in Beckett’s possession, customer will be compensated based upon the fair market value of the submission as determined by Beckett’s standard procedures which may include filing a claim with our insurance carrier."

So as the loss / theft occurred solely under their custody and not through shipping I don't think they can limit my claim and would have to offer a fair market value of the graded value, then claim back on their own business insurance if they chose to do so.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I am just trying to give you all the information.

Regards

[atticus]

Maybe you should seek advice in the state of Texas. This is a UK law discussion forum.

[r3tr0z]

Maybe you should seek advice in the state of Texas. This is a UK law discussion forum.

I am more so trying to work out how to apply to the courts in the US whilst being a resident of the UK, from what I have read so far it isn't as straight forward as if I lived in the same country.

[atticus]

This is why should should seek advice in Texas about how to do this in Texas, albeit whilst being in the UK. This is about the laws of Texas..