Shipping

Carriage by sea - package limitation for goods damaged at sea - goods shipped from Durban to Boston via Felixstowe - goods carried under straight bill of lading - bill of lading subject to English statute

J I MacWilliam Co Inc v Mediterranean Shipping Co SA; CA (Lords Justice Peter Gibson and Rix and Mr Justice Jacob); 16 April 2003

Four containers of printing machinery had been consigned to the claimant and were carried by two vessels owned by or demise chartered to the defendant, one making a journey from Durban to Felixstowe, the other taking the reshipped machinery from Felixstowe to Boston.

The straight bill of lading issued by the defendant at Durban to the company consigning the machinery to the claimant was the only contract document relating to the carriage.

The machinery was damaged en route to Boston.

The business issue between the parties was whether the contract of carriage contained in or evidenced by the bill of lading prescribed a package limitation under the Hague-Visby Rules or under the US Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1936.

The judge upheld an arbitration that the straight bill of lading under which the containers had been consigned was not a 'bill of lading' within the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971 and the Hague-Visby Rules, so that the limited recovery of $500 per package under the US Act prevailed.

The claimant appealed.

Alistair Schaff QC (instructed by Clyde & Co) for the claimant; Simon Croall (instructed by Duval Vassiliades) for the defendant.

Held, allowing the appeal, that a straight bill of lading was a bill of lading or similar document of title within the meaning of section 1(4) of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971 and the Hague-Visby Rules.