Carriage of goods

The law relating to carriage may be

studded under three heads: (I)
carriage by land including inland
navigation, (II) carriage by sea and
(III) carriage by air.
This is a convenient classification
because these three branches of law
of carriage are governed by different
principles and different statutes.

Statutes relating to the law of carriage

Statutes relating to the law of carriage are:
Carriage by land: The Carriers Act 1865,
The Railway Act 1890
Carriage by sea: The Bills of Landing Act
1856, The Carriage of Goods by Sea Act
1925, The Insurance Act 2010, The
Bangladesh Merchant Shipping Ordinance,
1983
Carriage by air: Carriage By Air Act, 1934
The statutes mentioned above are not
exhaustive, the court apply equity and good
conscience

Carriers: definition, classification and

characteristics
Any person or organization by an express or
implied contract with or without remuneration
carries goods and/or passengers is called a
Carrier.
Government services can be called carrier if it
is comes within the above definition., e.g.,
Bangladesh Railway.
Classification: carriers may be classified into
carriers of goods and carriers of passengers.
The same carrier may of course carry both
goods and passengers.
It is more usual to classify carriers into common
carriers or public carriers and private carriers.

Common carriers or public carriers

The Carriers Act of 1865 defines a common
carrier as any individual, firm or company (other
than the government) who transport goods as
business for money over land or inland
waterways without discrimination between
different consignors
The Post Office: the post office is not a common
carrier. It is not an agent of the sender to deliver
a postal article to the addressee. It is really a
branch of the public service providing postal
services subject to the provisions of the Post
Office Act and the rules made there under.

Characteristics of common carriers or

public carriers
It may be a firm or individual or a company.
But the government is not included in the
category. The post office is not a common
carrier, although it may carry goods
Only carriers of goods come within the
definition. A carrier of passenger is not a
common carrier
A common carrier is one who carries goods for
business and money. From this it follows that
one who carries goods occasionally is not a
common carrier. Also one who carries goods
free is not a common carrier.

Characteristics of common carriers or

public carriers
A common carrier is one who is ready
to carry the goods of any person
without any discrimination
The term common carrier is applied
only in the case of carriage by land
and over inland waterways

Characteristics of common carriers or public

carriers

Private carrier: a private carrier is one who does

not do regular business as a carrier but
occasionally carries goods for money. Suppose that
a contractor has a lorry which he uses mainly for
transporting his own goods but sometimes he let it
out on hire to others. The contractor is a private
carrier. From the occasional nature of a private
carriers job, it follows that he can discriminate
between different hirers. He is not bound to carry
the goods of any and everybody. A common carrier
(subject to certain exception) is bound to do so.
Gratuitous carrier: a gratuitous carrier is one who
carries goods (or passengers) without any charge.
The owner of a motor car who gives a lift to a
friend is a gratuitous carrier

Duties of a common carrier

The duties of a common carrier are determined
by The Carrier Act 1865 are as follows:
Must carry goods without discrimination: a
common carrier is bound to carry goods of every
person without any discrimination. But certain
exceptions are recognized.
A common can refuse to carry under the
following circumstances:
If the customer is not willing to pay reasonable
charges for the carriage
If there is no accommodation in the carriage
if the goods are dangerous or are of a type
which the carrier is not accustomed to carry and

Duties of a common carrier

If the goods are to be carried over a route with
which the carrier is not familiar. A carrier is
entitled to confined himself to the carriage of a
particular type of goods and/or over particular
route. In such cases the carrier can refuse to
carry the goods over unaccustomed routes and
to carry goods which he does not usually carry.
If a carrier without any of the reasons
mentioned above, refuses to carry the goods
of a person he can be sued and the customer
can recover damages.

Duties of a common carrier

Within the time and place: the carrier must deliver the
goods at the agreed time or (if no time had been
agreed upon) within a reasonable time. The place of
delivery is subject to contract.
With safety: the goods must be carried with
reasonable precautions for their safety and over the
usual and ordinary route.
Must insure: according to the English Common Law a
common carrier of goods is an insurer, i.e., he is bound
to indemnify the owner in full for loss or damage to the
goods in course of carriage. This liability is subject to
certain exceptions (rights of a common carrier)
Without deviation: deviation are not permitted unless
rendered necessary by exceptional circumstances

Rights of a common carrier

When not bound to carry goods: a common
carrier is not bound to carry goods under certain
circumstances (explain earlier)
Entitled to reasonable charges: he is entitled to
reasonable charges for his work, he can allow
concession rates to some customers but cannot
demand unreasonably high payments from
anybody. What is reasonable depends on the
circumstances of the case.
Has lien: he has lien on the goods for his
remuneration and can refuse to deliver the
goods until his dues are paid. This is known as
the Carriers Lien.

Rights of a common carrier

Steps for refusal of delivery: if the consignee
refuses to accept delivery of the goods, the
carrier is at liberty to take such steps as are
reasonable and prudent under the circumstances.
He can recover all reasonable expenses incurred
by him in this connection from the party with
whom the contract of carriage was entered into.
Damages: the carrier is entitled to recover
damages from the consignor if the goods given
for carriage are dangerous or are loosely packed
and the carrier suffers injury there from.
Exemptions: the carrier can subject to the
provisions of the Carriers Act entered into special
contracts exempting him from liability under
stated circumstances

Liabilities of a common carrier

The liabilities of a common carrier of goods
in Bangladesh are laid down in the Carriers
Act 1865. This Act divides goods into two
categories: schedule and Non-Schedule.

Schedule goods are certain articles

enumerated in a schedule to the Ac. They
are valuable articles like gold, silver,
jewelry, paintings, silk, title deeds,
currency notes and coins, etc. all other
articles are Non-Schedule.

Rules regarding the liability of a common

carriers

For schedule articles exceeding Tk 100 in value

the carrier is liable for all loss and damages, if
the value and the description of the goods are
disclosed by the consignor to the carrier or if
the loss or damage is due to a criminal act of
the carrier, his agent or servant
The common carrier can charge extra for
carrying scheduled articles but cannot limit his
statutory liability by any special agreement
The liability of a common carrier can be limited
by agreement under the provisions of sections
6 and 8 of the Act but that there must be a
limitation of the liability.

Rules regarding the liability of a common

carriers
The common carrier is responsible for loss
or damage caused by negligence of criminal
acts done by himself, his agents or servants
In case of loss or damage the claimant must
notify the carrier within six months of the
date of knowledge of the loss or damage.
The above rules apply only to common
carriers as defined by the Carriers Act 1865.
Thus they do not apply to carrier or
passengers or to railways.

Measure of damages
The measure of damages for delay for
goods lost or damaged is the difference
between the value of the goods at the
time when they ought to have been
delivered and at the time when they were
actually delivered
It is well settled that it is the market price
at the time the damage occurred which is
the damage to be awarded. Union of India
v. West Punjab Factories Ltd., also Hadly
v. Baxendale, p. 135 of Sen and Mitra

Carriage by sea
Carriage of goods by sea from any port in
Bangladesh to any other port or in outside
Bangladesh is govern by the Carriage of Goods by
Sea Act of 1925.
This Act based upon the recommendations of the
International Conference on Maritime Law held in
Brussels in 1922
The object of the Conference was to secure
uniformity of laws as regards the rights and
liabilities of carriers by sea and the rules regarding
bill of landing
The Bangladesh Merchant Shipping Ordinance
1983 was passed with the object of amending and
consolidating the Bangladesh law relating to
merchant shipping

The contract of affreightment

The contract to carry goods by sea is called the
Contract of Affreightment. The consignor (or his
agent) and the ship owner (or his agent) are two
parties to the contract
The consideration paid for the carriage is called
Freight
The
contract
of
affreightment
may
be
incorporated in a formal document containing the
terms of the agreement between the parties.
Such a document is called Charter Party.
Sometimes there is no formal document, the ship
owner merely gives a receipt for the goods and in
the receipt (known as the Bill of Landing) some of
the terms of the contract are written down

Charter Party
A Charter Party may be defined as an
agreement in writing for the purpose of
hiring as entire ship or a part thereof for the
purpose of carriage of goods. The person
hiring the ship or a part is called the
charterer
The following types of charter party are
found: a charter party for a particular period
of time is called a Time Charter
A charter party for a particular voyage is
called Voyage Charter

Charter Party
The terms of the charter party may amount to a
lease or demise of the whole ship to the charter
for a stated period. In this case the charterer
becomes for the time being the owner of the
vessel and the captain and the crew becomes his
servants during the charter period
If the terms of the charter party do not amount to
a lease or demise the charterer only gets the right
to have his goods conveyed by the ship and the
captain and the crew do not becomes his
servants, although their services are at the
disposal do the charterer for the purpose of
carriage

Terms of charter party

A charter party is deemed to contain
all terms of the contract between the
charter and the ship owner.
The clauses in a charter party usually
deals with the following matters:
Page-391 of Sen and Mitra

Bill of landing
A bill of landing is a receipt for goods delivered
to a ship for carriage. A bill of landing is used
when the goods shipped from only a part of
the cargo of the ship.
Characteristics:
signature,
evidence,
acknowledgement, document of title, page 392
Functions: page 392
Duties of carrier by sea: page 395
Liabilities of a carrier by sea: page 395 and
396

Carriage by air
The Carriage by Air Act 1934, Carriage by Air
(International Convention) Act 1966 the and
theCarriage by Air (Supplementary Convention)
Act, 1968 was passed with objective of getting
power to apply the rules contained in the Warsaw
Convention (treaty of Warsaw 1929) as amended by
the Hague Protocol (1955) also to non-international
carriages subject to exceptions, adaption and
modification
High contracting party: who attended and were the
signatories to the convention of Warsaw convention
and the Protocol of the Hague Convention

Carriage by air
International carriage by air: page
405
When liable: page 405
Rules relating liability of a carrier:
page 405 and 406
Internal carriage by air: page 407
The procedure for realizing for
damages: page 407 and 408