The owners of cargo lately laden on board the ship “River Gurara” -v- Nigerian National Shipping Line Ltd - QBD (Admlty Cr) (Colman J) - 29 January 1996

Package limitation - Containerised cargo - Whether it is the container itself or the separate items within the container which constitute the sole package for the purposes of Article IV rule 5 of Hague Rules

The vessel River Gurara sank on 26 February 1989 after stranding on the Portuguese coast. The cargo, much of which was containerised, was totally lost. The plaintiff cargo owners brought proceedings against the shipowners, who raised as part of their defence their entitlement to limit their liability to “£100 per package or unit” under Article IV rule 5 of the Hague Rules. They asserted that although many of the bills of lading stated that a container was “said to contain” a given number of separate items, such as pallets, crates, cases, cartons, bales and bags, the container itself should be treated as the sole package for the purposes of Article IV rule 5. For example, a bill of lading evidencing shipment of a container stated that it was said to contain 8 pallets said to contain 1855 bundles of veneer. The shipowners said that the container was the only “package”, whereas the plaintiffs said that there were 1855 packages. The plaintiffs also said that one of the clauses of the bills of lading (clause 9(B)) was contrary to Article III rule 8 of the Hague Rules and therefore void.