Richmond arranged for DHL to courier some shipping documents relating to the sale of leather worth US$57,460 to a company called Bini in Italy, for which they were charged the modest courier fee of $22.50.

In order to ensure that Richmond got paid for the leather, they arranged for the documents to couriered to a bank in Italy and not to Bini directly.

This unfortunately allowed Bini to uplift the leather shipment from the port without first paying.

Richmond sued DHL for the substantial consequential loss that resulted.

DHL claimed they were not liable for damages due to their exclusion of liability clause.