Court Shifts Liability to Buyers in Perfume Shipment Theft

An insurance company covering suppliers involved in a perfume order worth hundreds of thousands of dollars isn’t liable after the shipment was lost when the carrier’s truck was stolen, a federal appeals court said.

The title to $351,543 perfume and its risk of loss transferred to the buyer, Scents Corp., at the time of shipment, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said in a Monday opinion reversing a summary judgment denial for insurer Lloyd’s of London.

The buyer—who does business as Perfumes of the World—refused to pay the three Florida companies who supplied the order after it ...