Bills of Lading 1 Functions of a Bill of Lading Claims Guides Evidence of the contract of carriage The bill of lading is evidence of the contract of carriage, it is not the contract of carriage itself. That contract between the carrier and the shipper is created when the goods are loaded on board the ship and will therefore already exist before the bill of lading is issued. If the cargo were to damaged before issuing the bill of lading, the shipper will be able to claim under the contract of carriage as if the bill had been issued. As between a carrier and a consignee, the bill of lading will be the actual contract of carriage. The contractual carrier under the bill of lading may be the physical carrier (ship owner or demise charterer) or another party (such as the charterer, or sub charterer). Receipt of the goods by the carrier The bill of lading records the date on which the full quantity of goods were received by the carrier, evidence of the apparent condition and quantity of the goods on receipt including marks, number, quantity or weight (the “figures”), place of issue and the load and discharge port(s). English law incorporates the HagueVisby Rules (“HVR”) by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992. Article III Rule IV of the HVR provides that the figures on the bill of lading will be conclusive evidence between the carrier and a third party receiver (who has been transferred the bill of lading in good faith). It is therefore important for the owner or charterer member that the bills of lading are issued to describe accurately the goods received on board. It is also important that a record is made of the cargo condition at the time of receipt by the carrier – for example, if the goods were loaded in good condition but damaged shortly afterwards by rain, the bill of lading should be issued clean. Sometimes the bill of lading will not be claused but will have reference to a survey report. This will not be sufficient for the purposes of protecting the carrier and the surveyor’s comments will not be deemed as incorporated into the bill of lading, unless the survey report is attached to all the bills of lading and the pages are numbered so that they form part of the bill of lading together with the bill of lading number stamped on the report. Owners’ obligations regarding the receipt, carriage and delivery of the cargo are closely related with the functions of the bills of lading. Below is a general overview of the functions of bills of lading from an English law perspective. Bills of lading have three main functions, as follows: Claims Guides Christina Anderson Associate T +852 2863 4546 E Christina.Anderson @westpandi.com Christina is an Associate in the West of England’s Hong Kong office, handling P&I and FD&D matters for Members in the Asia Pacific region. She is a dual qualified solicitor in both England & Wales and in Hong Kong, specialising in marine and international trade disputes. Christina practised commercial litigation and arbitration at two international law firms for 7 years and was based in both London and Hong Kong prior to joining the Club in 2015. Get in touch West of England Insurance Services (Luxembourg) S.A. Hong Kong Office 1302 China Evergrande Centre 38 Gloucester Road Wanchai Hong Kong T +852 2529 5724 London Office One Creechurch Place Creechurch Lane London EC3A 5AF T +44 20 7716 6000 E publications@westpandi.com W www.westpandi.com © West of England Insurance Services. All rights reserved. The opinions expr