Ship agency claims examples

27/03/2014

The price of proving innocence

A ship agent was named as a second defendant by cargo interests in a claim for damage to significant quantities of imported aluminium.

27/03/2014

Zeroing in on the mistake

A ship agent issued a manifest for seven containers of fruit to be shipped from the Caribbean. The system used did not allow for a zero figure to be put in front of the decimal point, so the temperature read as “-.5C”.

27/03/2014

Counting confusion

A new regulation was issued by local maritime authorities in South America, stipulating the type and number of tugs to be used depending on the size of a vessel.

10/10/2013

Forged bills of lading

The shipment of six containers of castor oil, worth USD 270,000, was arranged by a ship agent member of ITIC. The containers were to be transported from India to Antwerp. Unfortunately, the Belgian agent released the cargo to the consignee against a bill of lading that appeared genuine at first glance – but was in fact a clever forgery.

10/10/2013

Cargo discharge clanger

A ship agent received instructions from a shipper to book eight containers of cargo from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia and issued two bills of lading for the booking.

10/10/2013

Bills of Lading blunder

In late September, an agent for a major shipping line accepted a booking of industrial solvent. On 10 October the vessel arrived at the loadport but did not complete cargo operations until five days later.

18/03/2013

Take care with customs

A vessel loaded a cargo of bulk wheat in the UK. The shippers were a large trading company.

18/03/2013

Chasing unpaid fees

18/03/2013

Not plugged in

22/03/2012

Telex release goes wrong

Liner agents frequently have to arrange for cargo to be released against bills of lading surrendered at the loadport – the so called “Telex Release”. This type of release is risky as no bill of lading is collected at the...