Firm to pay Rs 52,000 to owner for car damaged in transit

Three years after Navi Mumbai resident, Dr Souvik Nandi’s car was damaged due to the recklessness of a Surat-based packing and moving company, a redressal forum, on Friday, directed the company to pay around Rs52,000 to Nandi as compensation.

Three years after Navi Mumbai resident, Dr Souvik Nandi’s car was damaged due to the recklessness of a Surat-based packing and moving company, a redressal forum, on Friday, directed the company to pay around Rs52,000 to Nandi as compensation.

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In September 2008, Nandi approached Swastik Packers and Movers for transporting her Maruti-800 car from Panchkula in Haryana to her residence in Navi Mumbai. On August 26, 2008, Nandi handed over the car to them and she paid Rs8,000 for the service.

On September 9, 2008, when the car was delivered to Nandi at her residence, she found it had been badly damaged. The company tried to dodge her questions on how the car got damaged but Nandi soon learned that the company had breached the terms of service by engaging a driver to drive the car to Navi Mumbai instead of instead of transporting the car in a container. An accident near Gurgaon had resulted in heavy damage to her car.

On Friday, the consumer forum held that Nandi had suffered damages of Rs1.5 lakh and therefore, the company was liable to pay a compensation to the complainant.

However, it reduced the compensation to Rs52,158, taking into consideration that an insurance company had already paid her Rs87,842.

The aggregate amount also includes Rs10,000 toward the mental agony suffered by Nandi and Rs5,000 as reimbursement towards the cost of the litigation.