These days, orders placed for home delivery usually arrive without a problem, but there are always exceptions. This is especially true for long-established shipping services. For example, a Texas landlord claimed in the Supreme Court that postal employees deliberately withheld her mail for nearly two years. This isn’t the first time such cases have occurred at the U.S. Postal Service. Konan, the protagonist of this story, stated that her mail was marked as undeliverable or returned to sender, even after the USPS Inspector General intervened and ordered its delivery.
The fact is that individuals can normally sue the federal government if its employees cause them harm or damage
What we know so far is that the plaintiff is seeking compensation for damages that appear to be the result of malpractice, but that is something a judge will have to decide. The case centers on the wording of the postal service’s exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act, which states that the postal service cannot be sued for “loss, error, or negligent transmission of letters or mailings.”
These types of cases can become complex because it is difficult to prove the illegality of an act that cannot be reliably verified. The lawsuit argues that the aforementioned exception does not apply when postal employees deliberately withhold mail. The fact is that individuals can normally sue the federal government if its employees cause them harm or damage their property, but the postal service is an exception to this rule.
“The USPS sold my package as ‘lost mail,’ and the person who bought it contacted me and said that if I wanted it back, I had to pay for it”
In other cases, for example, some users claim that after losing a package, they found it being sold on websites. “The USPS sold my package as ‘lost mail,’ and the person who bought it contacted me and said that if I wanted it back, I had to pay for it,” stated one user who reported this case on Reddit, attaching photographic evidence. UPS maintains that if a package is lost, the company has a specific process for locating it, as explained directly by UPS.
Regarding the case featured in this article, “I think we’re going to face a lot of mail lawsuits,” said Frederick Liu, Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice, during oral arguments in court last month. The case in question details how Konan, a homeowner, real estate agent, and insurance agent, alleged that two postal employees in Euless, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, deliberately withheld her mail for two years because they didn’t like that she was Black and owned multiple properties. “What will the consequences be if all these lawsuits are filed and have to go to trial?” asked Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Amazon’s case, they take responsibility for lost packages
It’s a complicated situation because a shipping company’s objective is to ensure customers receive their packages; if they don’t, customers can file complaints about mismanagement. During the hearing last month, the judges questioned whether the USPS was protected from lawsuits, but they also expressed concern about the financial implications of reopening the service, which already loses $10 billion annually due to potentially frivolous claims.
Today, with the number of companies offering online shipping, competition is fiercer than ever. Amazon and Ikea are giants that have their own delivery systems; they don’t rely on other companies for shipping and have their own in-house shipping departments. And because they are such large companies, for example in Amazon’s case, they take responsibility for lost packages. That is, if a user claims to have lost their package, the company is responsible as long as they provide proof of the loss.