49 U.S.C. § 14706
Carmack Amendment: suing a carrier for freight it lost or damaged
A claim in United States district courts · Last verified August 26, 2026
Freight arrived damaged, or never arrived. The Carmack Amendment is the exclusive federal remedy — and its most important feature is that it preempts your state-law claims entirely. Negligence, breach of contract, bailment: all displaced.
What you get in exchange is a burden structure that favours the shipper. Prove the goods left in good condition and arrived damaged, and the carrier must then prove both that it was not negligent and that the loss falls within a recognised exception.
The deadlines are the trap, and they are not where people look for them. They come from the bill of lading, not the statute.
What the claim is
You shipped goods by interstate motor or rail carrier and they were lost, damaged, or delayed.
Plaintiffs are shippers, consignees, and — often — the cargo insurer suing as subrogee after paying its insured.
Where the right comes from
Express, and it makes the carrier
liable to the person entitled to recover under the receipt or bill of lading … for the actual loss or injury to the property.
And it preempts. State-law claims against the carrier for cargo loss are displaced. A complaint pleading negligence against a motor carrier for damaged freight will be dismissed or recharacterised — this is the single most common pleading error in the area.
What a plaintiff has to prove
The framework comes from Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. Elmore & Stahl, and it is unusually favourable to the shipper.
The prima facie case is three things:
- Delivery to the carrier in good condition.
- Arrival in damaged condition, or non-arrival.
- The amount of damages.
Then the burden shifts, and it shifts hard. The carrier must prove both that it was free from negligence and that the damage was caused by one of five excepted causes: an act of God, the public enemy, an act of the shipper, public authority, or the inherent vice or nature of the goods.
Proving reasonable care alone does not excuse the carrier. It must also fit the loss into an exception. That conjunctive requirement is what makes this a strong claim on good facts.
How long you have to file — read your bill of lading
The statute does not set the deadlines. It sets floors.
A carrier may not require a claim-filing period of less than nine months, nor a suit period of less than two years after it disallows the claim.
The operative deadlines therefore live in the contract of carriage. The statute only forbids the carrier from contracting for something shorter.
Two consequences people miss:
- Where the bill of lading is silent, no nine-month bar applies. The floor constrains the carrier's contract; it does not independently impose a deadline.
- The two-year suit clock runs from the carrier's written denial — in whole or in part — not from the date of the damage.
What has to happen before you file
File a written claim with the carrier, ordinarily within nine months.
Character: this fits none of the standard categories cleanly, and it is worth saying so rather than forcing it. It is not a statutory limitations period, not jurisdictional, and not a claim-processing gate to the courthouse. It is a contractual condition precedent to recovery, created by the bill of lading and merely floor-protected by the statute.
What counts as a proper claim is fixed by regulation, and informal complaints do not satisfy it. The claim must be a written communication that identifies the shipment and demands a specified or determinable amount of money. A phone call, an email noting damage, or a notation on the delivery receipt is generally not enough.
Who can be sued — and who cannot
The receiving carrier, the delivering carrier, and any carrier over whose line the property moved. That joint-and-several structure means a shipper need not untangle which carrier in a chain caused the damage.
Brokers are generally not carriers, and the distinction is fact-specific and heavily litigated — particularly as freight brokerage and last-mile e-commerce delivery have blurred the categories. A plaintiff who sues only the broker may find it has no Carmack liability at all.
Broker-carrier agreements can contractually shift or expand liability beyond what the statute provides.
Common defenses
The five excepted causes, each of which must be paired with proof of freedom from negligence.
The released-value limitation — the statutory safe harbour, and the main way carriers cap exposure. A carrier may limit liability to a declared value, but only if it maintains a compliant tariff, gives the shipper a reasonable opportunity to choose between two or more levels of liability, obtains the shipper's agreement to its choice, and issues a bill of lading reflecting that agreement. Get any of those wrong and the limitation fails.
No timely written claim, where the bill of lading required one.
The suit period in the contract.
What the claim pays
Full actual loss — ordinarily the invoice or replacement value of the goods.
Not lost profits, consequential damages, or retail markup, absent special notice to the carrier at the time of shipment.
A valid released rate caps recovery at the declared or agreed value, often expressed as a set dollar amount per pound. That cap is why a shipment worth $80,000 can yield a recovery of a few thousand dollars — the shipper accepted a low released value, usually without noticing, in exchange for a lower freight rate.
No punitive damages. Attorney's fees only in narrow household-goods contexts.
What people get wrong
"Nine months is the statute of limitations." It is a contractual floor. The deadline comes from your bill of lading, and if the bill is silent there may be no nine-month bar at all.
"The carrier is strictly liable no matter what." No. The excepted causes and the released-value limitation both matter.
"I'll sue for negligence." Preempted. Carmack is the exclusive remedy against the carrier.
"I can recover what I would have sold it for." Generally not — actual loss means the value of the goods, not lost profit or retail markup.
"I emailed them about the damage, so I filed a claim." Probably not. A proper claim must identify the shipment and demand a specific or determinable amount.
"The broker is on the hook." Usually not as a carrier. Check who held the freight.
Where it came from
The Carmack Amendment dates to 1906, added to the Interstate Commerce Act to solve a problem the railroads had created: a shipper whose goods moved over several lines had to identify which carrier caused the loss, in a system where no carrier would tell them. Congress made every carrier in the chain liable and let them sort it out among themselves.
That is why the burden structure looks the way it does, and why Elmore & Stahl in 1964 remains the anchor — the shipper cannot see inside the carrier's operation, so the carrier must explain the loss.
The Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995 recodified the provision and continued the two-year suit structure. The filed-tariff element of the released-rate defence has been relaxed in practice since, because the tariff-filing regime it assumed no longer exists in the same form.
The active questions now are about who counts as a carrier: broker-versus-carrier liability, and how last-mile and e-commerce delivery arrangements fit a statute written for railroads.
Common questions
How long do I have to file a freight damage claim?
Usually nine months to submit a written claim to the carrier, and two years from the carrier's written denial to sue. But those come from your bill of lading — the statute only forbids the carrier from setting anything shorter.
What do I have to prove?
Three things: the goods were in good condition when the carrier took them, they arrived damaged or did not arrive, and the amount of your loss. The carrier then has to prove both that it was not negligent and that an excepted cause applies.
Can I sue the carrier for negligence instead?
No. The Carmack Amendment preempts state-law claims against the carrier for cargo loss or damage.
Why is my recovery capped below what the goods were worth?
Probably a released-value limitation in the bill of lading. Carriers may cap liability at a declared value if they offered you a genuine choice between liability levels and documented your agreement.
Can I recover lost profits?
Generally not. Recovery is the actual loss — the value of the goods — unless you gave the carrier special notice of consequential exposure when you shipped.