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'''CARRIAGE OF GOODS BY SEA: CONSIGNMENTS OF BAGGED COFFEE BEANS IN CONTAINERS CARRIED ON LCL/FCL TERMS: CARGO DAMAGED BY CONDENSATION: TEMPORAL SCOPE OF HAGUE RULES: BURDEN OF PROOF: WHETHER CARRIER FAILED PROPERLY AND CAREFULLY TO LOAD AND CARRY THE GOODS: WHETHER CARRIER ENTITLED TO RELY ON “INHERENT VICE” EXCEPTION: WHETHER DAMAGE INEVITABLE: HAGUE RULES, ARTICLE III RULE 2 AND ARTICLE IV RULE 2(M)'''
'''Note: this judgment has been overruled by decision of the Supreme Court of 5 December 2018 - [2018] UKSC 61 - in which it determined that, for the purposes of the Hague-Visby Rules Art.III(2) and Art.IV(m), the carrier bore the legal burden of proving that it had taken due care to protect the cargo from damage, including damage arising from inherent vice.'''
'''Summary'''
There was no appeal against the judge’s finding on the bill of lading terms, so even though the carrier had appealed against the judge’s finding as to the temporal application of the Hague Rules, the ground of appeal was academic. Nonetheless, the Court of Appeal was urged to decide the issue, and it found that the judge’s analysis of the temporal scope of the Hague Rules was correct. Here, the carrier had assumed responsibility for the dressing and stuffing of the containers, so that those services formed part of the operation of “loading”, to which the Hague Rules applied.
'''Comment'''
The detailed judgment given by the Court of Appeal is very helpful in that it sets out clearly the way the burden of proof operates under the Hague Rules. It also highlights that the inherent vice exception applies where the loss is caused simply by a normal cargo behaving in the way it does under the circumstances in which it is expected to be carried. It also re-emphasises that the carrier’s obligation to care for and carry the goods properly, that is, in accordance with a sound system, does not require a carrier to adopt a system which would prevent damage, but merely a system which constitutes a sound system in relation to the general practice of carriage of goods by sea. So this will be a welcome decision for ship owners generally.
