The owners of cargo lately laden on board the ship “River Gurara” v Nigerian National Shipping Line Ltd - Court of Appeal (Hirst, Phillips and Mummery LJJ) - 11 June 1997

Package limitation - Containerised cargo - Whether it is the container itself or the separate items within the container which constitute the sole package for the purposes of Article IV rule 5 of Hague Rules

The issue was whether the defendant shipowners were entitled to limit their liability to the plaintiff cargo owners under Article IV rule 5 of the Hague Rules. The shipowners asserted that although many of the bills of lading stated that a container was “stc” (said to contain) a given number of separate items, such as pallets, crates, cases, cartons, bales and bags, the container itself should be treated as the sole package for the purposes of Article IV Rule 5.