Lotus Cars Ltd and ors v Southampton Cargo Handling plc and ors (‘The Rigoletto’) - Court of Appeal Peter Gibson, Chadwick and Rix LJJ - 31 July 2000

Carriage of goods by sea - Bailment - Whether stevedores and port authority were bailees of Lotus sports cars stored in docks compound awaiting shipment - Whether stevedores entitled to rely on Himalaya clause in bill of lading

Associated British Ports plc (‘ABP’) were the owners and operators of Southampton Docks (‘the docks’). Southampton Cargo Handling Plc (‘SCH’) were stevedores at the docks. In the docks there was a compound, owned and operated by ABP, but used by SCH, among other stevedores at the port, for the storage of cars awaiting shipment. SCH were the biggest, but not the exclusive, users of the compound. A total of twelve Lotus Esprit sports cars owned by the Claimants (‘Lotus’) were to be shipped on board the vessel Rigoletto. The first batch of five cars was received for shipment on the Rigoletto by SCH, on 24 or 25 August 1994 on the terms of a shipping note which incorporated its standard conditions (‘the SCH conditions’). The effect of the SCH conditions was that they reversed the burden of proof in bailment, so that SCH accepted liability if negligence was proved against them.