Study On Ship Agent’s Liabilities For Delivery Of Goods Without Production Of Original Bills Of Lading

The ship agent has complex business scope and the executing of ship agent business is directly related to the contract obligations performance of the carrier. To the ship agent in the port of discharge, one of his important businesses is the delivery of goods. By the instruction of the carrier or the request from the person who collects goods without original bills of lading, the ship agent in the port of discharge delivers goods without original bills of lading. As a result, the ship agent in the port of discharge is often sued by the holders of original bills of lading.Supreme People’s Court announced the "Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Certain Issues Concerning the Application of Law to the Trial of Cases Involving Delivery of Goods without Original Bills of Lading" in 2009(hereinafter referred to as "Provisions of Delivery of Goods without Original Bills of Lading"), this judicial interpretation clears certain issues regarding the carrier for delivery of goods without original bills of lading. However, to the liabilities of ship agent in the port of discharge who delivers goods without original bills of lading, there are not any clear rules in existing law or judicial interpretations. Combining the theories of civil law and the law of carriage of goods by sea, this thesis discusses the following issues over ship agent for delivery of goods without original bills of lading:the liability nature, the liability distribution, and the enjoyment of limitation of liability and exceptions.Except the parts of Introduction and Conclusion, this article is divided into four chapters:The first chapter firstly introduces the concept and business scope of ship agent in brief, and analyzes the legal relationship between the ship agent and the carrier. Then it comes to the topic of this thesis. It defines the scope of ship agent in this thesis, analyzes the effects of issuing delivery orders and the features of delivering goods without original bills of lading which is conducted by the ship agent.The second chapter focuses on the ship agent’s liability nature and doctrine of liability fixation for delivery of goods without original bills of lading. Then the chapter puts emphasize on the fault doctrine of liability fixation, the criteria of judging faults and liability constitution of ship agent for delivery of goods without original bills of lading.Taking the related jurisdictions as a starting point, the third chapter analyzes and summarizes the current basic judgment patterns and existing problems of ship agent for delivery of goods without original bills of lading. Then the chapter discusses the liability distribution problem among ship agent, the carrier and the person who collects goods without original bills of lading.The forth chapter focuses on the issue of whether or not the ship agent enjoys limitation of liability and exceptions. Starting from the related rules of "Provisions of Delivery of Goods without Original Bills of Lading", the chapter analyzes the reasons for which the carrier loses the limitation of liability, aiming at finding legal and theory basis for discussing whether or not the ship agent enjoys the limitation of liability. Secondly, the thesis takes "Minutes of the Second National Working Conference on the Trial of Foreign-Related Commercial and Maritime Cases" (hereinafter referred to as "Minutes") and "Provisions of Delivery of Goods without Original Bills of Lading" as references, analyzes the exceptions which could be enjoyed by ship agent when he delivers goods without original bills of lading.