Wrong terms

A forwarder included "all shipments subject to the CMR Convention” in a written booking with a ship agent for line haulage. The agent failed to spot this note and appointed a haulier who contracted under his normal road haulage conditions, which provided for a limit of liability of US$2,000 per metric tonne. When a container of spirits was stolen the total liability under the haulier’s conditions was around US$40,000, whereas the limitation amount under the CMR Convention (which includes duty and freight) was in the region of US$ 350,000. The agent was responsible to the ocean carrier for failing to notice the incorporation of the CMR Convention into the inland movement, and thereby allowing it to be incorporated without the ocean carrier’s authority.