Legal

As we know, a Bill of Lading (B/L) is one of the most commonly used commercial documents in the history of global trade and shipping.....

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There have been several questions about the “liability of a shipper on a bill of lading”.. As we have discussed, any one can be a shipper on the bill of lading and may not necessarily be the actual exporter or seller of the goods that are covered in the bill of lading..

It is not uncommon for a Seller to be pursued by the Carrier for unpaid charges incurred in relation to the cargo, say, due to the Consignee failing to come forth and take delivery.

More often, this comes as a shock to the Seller given that they may have received payment under their contract for sale of goods and subsequently transferred the negotiable Bill of Lading by endorsement (either to a named party or in blank).

The Seller generally presumes that they do not bear any liability and instead believe that the Carrier only has a right to pursue the Consignee.

The below article by Muthu Jagannath explains the liability of the entity who is listed as a Shipper in the Bill of Lading (“BL”)..

Whether for its size and status as one of the largest container ships in the world or because it was famously termed as a “boat that was stuck in a canal”, the Ever Given will remain in people’s minds either as a memorable incident (to those who worked to free it) or as a haunting incident (to the ship owner, ship operator, ship crew and soon maybe the customers)..

Muthu Jagannath of NAU Pte Ltd., provides relevant and pertinent information about the Ever Given, its arrest, the implications of the arrest, insurance and counter claims in this article originally published on their website..

With the Ever Given still “legally” stuck in the Great Bitter Lakes in Suez Canal, discussions and concerns have turned to various other issues relating to the cargo, the ship’s crew and General Average.

The “arrest” of the ship by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) which intends to recover losses of around $916 million including $300 million for salvage bonus and $300 million for loss of reputation, has further complicated life for the ship crew who must have been having anxious moments no doubt.

Pre-Dating or Back Dating is when the shipper requests the shipping line to show the Shipped on Board date on the bill of lading as a date before the actual sailing of the vessel (example : the vessel actually sails on the 2nd of March but shipper wants the line to show the shipped on board date on the bill of lading as 28th of February)..

Why would a shipper want his bill of lading to be pre-dated or back dated and why would a shipping line reject this request..??

Many of you might have heard the term Letter of Indemnity (LOI) in day to day shipping practice..

There have been several arguments, discussions, commercial threats, litigation etc surrounding this LOI..

But many still have doubts on what an LOI is, when it can and should be used, whether it is legally enforceable and whether it is worth the paper it is written on..

I will try to answer these questions in this article..