U.S. Appeals Court Backs FMC in Evergreen Dispute

A long-running dispute over container detention charges between Evergreen and a U.S. trucking company has been resolved, with a federal appeals court siding squarely with the regulator and reinforcing limits on when carriers can impose such fees.

In a decision issued April 28, 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a petition by Evergreen Shipping Agency (America) Corp. and upheld a ruling by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) that certain detention charges were unreasonable.

The case stems from a 2020 shipment handled for Yamaha Motor Co., in which trucking firm TCW was designated to move cargo inland from the Port of Savannah to a Georgia manufacturing plant.

Evergreen provided a container and chassis to TCW with limited “free time” — 21 days for the container and four days for the chassis — after which daily detention fees would apply.

Complications arose when Yamaha’s plant shut down due to COVID-19, delaying TCW’s ability to retrieve and return the equipment. When TCW finally recovered the container, the Savannah port gates were closed for three consecutive days (May 23–25, 2020), preventing return of the equipment.

Evergreen nonetheless charged $510 in detention fees for those days as