ndition of the goods and/or the packaging." Traditionally, individual bills of lading covered each shipment. Today, many goods are delivered by container ships and involve multi-modal transportation (by truck or rail to the ocean-going vessel and from the ship to the ultimate destination. As a result, 'received for shipment bills' and 'seaway bills' or other non-negotiable bills of lading replace individual 'on board bills of lading' with the multi-modal transport operator generally being responsible "for the entire movement from factory to the final destination."
2. Bill of lading as proof of the contract of carriage and of the obligation to deliver the goods at place of destination to the legitimate holder of the bill of lading. "The bill of lading . . . serves as the contract between the shipper and the carrier allocating the risk of loss of cargo during the voyage."
According to Clarke, "in the 19th century, freedom to contract for the shipment of goods had become freedom for powerful carriers to impose the bondage of unfair terms on those shippers, a majority, in a position of commercial inferiority."
After the American Supreme Court ruled in 1889 that carriers could not insert binding limitation of liability clauses in bills of lading, the American Harter Act (1893), 46 U.S.C.A., secs. 190-196, basically voided such clauses. The present applicable federal statute, the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA) (1936), 46 U.S.C.A., secs. 1300-1315, provides in sec. 1303(8) that a carrier cannot exempt itself by contract "from loss or damage . . . arising from negligence, fault or failure in the duties and obligations provided in this section."
Various international conventions have attempted to reconcile conflicting national laws regarding the liabilities of carriers to shippers, including the Hague Rules (1924), the Hague-Visby Amendments, and the Hamburg Rules (1978). The United States is a party to the Hague R...