The “Luna” – Court of Appeal (Judith Prakash and Steven Chong JJCA and Quentin Loh JAD) [2021] SGCA 84 – 20 August 2021

Carriage of goods by sea – Bills of lading – Whether documents of title or mere receipts

In these two appeals arising out of the collapse of the OW Bunker group the trial judge had found that bills of lading relating to the carriage of parcels of bunker fuel sold by the respondent sellers to OW Bunker had contractual force as bills of lading and that the shipowners had, by issuing the bills of lading undertaken to the sellers to deliver only against presentation of the bills of lading.