Hong Kong Ordinances

BILLS OF LADING AND ANALOGOUS SHIPPING DOCUMENTS ORDINANCE - SECT 4

Rights under shipping documents

(1) Subject to this section, a person who-

   (a)  becomes the lawful holder of a bill of lading;

   (b)  becomes (without being an original party to the contract of  carriage)
        the person to whom delivery of goods to which a sea waybill relates is
        to be made by the carrier in accordance with that contract; or

   (c)  becomes the person to whom delivery of goods to which a ship's
        delivery order relates is to be made in accordance with the
        undertaking contained in the order, shall (by virtue of becoming the
        holder of the bill or, as the case may be, the person to whom delivery
        is to be made) have transferred to and vested in him all rights of
        suit under the contract of carriage as if he had been a party to that
        contract.

(2) Where, when a person becomes the lawful holder of a bill of  lading,
possession of the bill no longer gives a right (as against the carrier) to
possession of the goods to which the bill relates, that person shall not have
any rights transferred to him by virtue of subsection (1) unless he becomes
the holder of the bill-

   (a)  by virtue of a transaction effected in pursuance of any contractual or
        other arrangements made before the time when such a right to
        possession ceased to attach to possession of the bill; or

   (b)  as a result of the rejection to that person by another person of goods
        or documents delivered to the other person in pursuance of any such
        arrangements.

(3) The rights vested in any person by virtue of the operation of subsection
(1) in relation to a ship's delivery order-

   (a)  shall be so vested subject to the terms of the order; and

   (b)  where the goods to which the order relates form a part only of the
        goods to which the contract of carriage relates, shall be confined to
        rights in respect of the goods to which the order relates.

(4) Where, in the case of any document to which this Ordinance applies-

   (a)  a person with any interest or right in or in relation to goods to
        which the document relates sustains loss or damage in consequence of a
        breach of the contract of carriage; and

   (b)  subsection (1) operates in relation to that document so that rights of
        suit in respect of that breach are vested in another person, the other
        person shall be entitled to exercise those rights for the benefit of
        the person who sustained the loss or damage to the same extent as they
        could have been exercised if they had been vested in the person for
        whose benefit they are exercised.

(5) Where rights are transferred by virtue of the operation of subsection (1)
in relation to any document, the transfer for which that subsection provides
shall extinguish any entitlement to those rights which derives-

   (a)  where that document is a bill of lading, from a person's having been
        an original party to the contract of carriage; or

   (b)  in the case of any document to which this Ordinance applies, from the
        previous operation of that subsection in relation to that document,
        but the operation of that subsection shall be without prejudice to any
        rights which derive from a person's having been an original party to
        the contract contained in, or evidenced by, a sea waybill and, in
        relation to a ship's delivery order, shall be without prejudice to any
        rights deriving otherwise than from the previous operation of that
        subsection in relation to that order. (Enacted 1993)