Microsoft has filed suit against DHL over a trainload of XBoxes that spilled during a train derailment.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, comes about one year after about 21,600 Xboxes were spilled in the train wreck near Duke, Texas, according to the complaint. The suit is seeking $2 million in damages.
The suit includes two claims — as an admiralty and maritime claim and a case of federal court jurisdiction involving interstate carriage of goods with an amount in controversy exceeding $10,000 excluding costs and interest.
It claims that the goods were “discharged and delivered damaged and short at the place of shipment,” and that DHL has not compensated Microsoft for damages despite Microsoft’s demands.
A Microsoft spokesperson told InternetNews.com that Microsoft does not comment on litigation, and its attorney, James F. Whitehead, did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
The derailment occurred on or about October 13, 2007, according to the complaint. The Xboxes were in six containers and were to be loaded onto a vessel in Long Beach, Calif. for Hong Kong.
The consignee was Flextronics Industrial of Zhuhai, China. Flextronics, headquartered in Singapore, designs, builds, ships and services electronic products through a network of facilities in 30 countries.
Flextronics did not return calls for comment by press time.
The suit comes at a time when DHL, struggling to stay afloat in the United States, is shaking up its North American operations. It plans to cut at least 1,500 jobs in North America and outsource flight operations to rival UPS, to which it will pay $1 billion a year for 10 years to carry its US domestic and international shipments within North America.
DHL did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
According to VG Chartz, which aims “to provide the most accurate, up to date and comprehensive videogame sell-through charts in the world,” the Nintendo Wii led sales during the week of Oct. 4, with 112,772 sold, while the Xbox 360 came in third, with 86,044, behind the Nintendo DS, with 123,833.
Microsoft’s last major lawsuit over Xbox was with Immersion, which was settled earlier this year.
Update corrects weekly console sales figures.
