A trucker who had the bad idea of going through the United States to New Brunswick with a large shipment of pot could cause his employer to lose $1.4 million, who is now the target of a civil suit.
“He crossed the border between Canada and the United States, despite the numerous road signs and the multiple possibilities to correct his trajectory and his error,” asserts the cannabis producer Greentone, in a civil suit recently filed in the Montreal courthouse.
Greentone, a Quebec producer of legal cannabis, still has difficulty explaining how a trucker could have made this error which occurred last summer. At the time, the Bécancour-based company wanted to deliver a cannabis resin derivative and dried flowers to the Maritimes. She therefore called a transport company, which in turn dispatched a truck driver to carry out the transport.
“The driver signed the bill of lading which specifically detailed the nature and value of the cargo,” Greentone claims in the civil suit.
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Bad journey
However, listening only to his GPS, the trucker then set off towards the Coburn Gore border crossing. To get to New Brunswick, two routes are possible, the quickest being the one that goes through Maine. And this is the route that the trucker took, even though cannabis is illegal in this American state.
“He, through his negligence and carelessness, failed to check the route suggested by his GPS,” laments Greentone, recalling that before arriving at the border crossing, numerous signs remind us of American laws regarding cannabis. And as a matter of fact, as soon as he crossed the border, American Homeland Security intervened.
“This immediately caused the seizure and subsequent destruction of the cargo,” the court document states.
Two days later, the carrier reportedly told Greentone that the cargo was “lost and unrecoverable.”
No insurance
However, the story does not end there for Greentone, which then learned that the carrier did not have the insurance required to transport the cannabis, even though it had affirmed that it was able to mandate a trucker who had one for this special delivery.
This meant that in addition to seeing its cannabis go up in smoke, Greentone was unable to be compensated for its losses. The last option was therefore to file a civil suit in the Superior Court of Quebec.
“The loss […] were caused entirely and exclusively by the faults, negligence, recklessness and carelessness of the defendants,” we can read in the court document.
Greentone is thus demanding reimbursement for the lost cargo, but also additional amounts for the damages suffered, bringing the claim to nearly $1.4 million.
Unless an agreement is reached out of court, the case will soon be presented to a judge.