Carrier's inexcusable fault
A deliberate fault involving awareness of the likelihood of damage and its reckless acceptance, which deprives the carrier of statutory or contractual liability limits.
Transport regimes limit the carrier's liability, and that is what makes its risk insurable at a reasonable price. The limitation falls away in case of particularly serious fault, which texts call gross negligence, willful misconduct, inexcusable fault or, in international law, an act done recklessly and with knowledge that damage would probably result. In domestic road transport, French lawmakers in 2009 ended case law that readily found gross negligence to set aside the caps in standard contracts: Article L. 133-8 of the Commercial Code now lets limitation fall only for intentional fault or inexcusable fault, defined as a deliberate fault involving awareness of the likelihood of damage and its reckless acceptance without valid reason. The definition is demanding, and courts rarely find it. For the carrier's insurer, it makes the limit reliable; for the cargo insurer, it reduces hopes of recovery beyond the cap.
Since Act No. 2009-1503 of December 8, 2009, a road carrier that leaves a trailer loaded with 300,000 euros of perfume in an unguarded parking lot, and suffers theft, loses the standard contract limit only if the court finds a reckless acceptance of risk without valid reason.
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