Complaint of Norfolk, Baltimore and Carolina Line, Inc., 478 F. Supp. 383 (E.D.Va.1979) decided Oct. 4, 1979

Unit limitation of carrier liability - $500 per container

The petitioner shipowner’s contention that each container (20 feet, and 40 feet in length) was the package for purpose of unit limitation was accepted in a limitation of liability proceedings. Here a barge containing 93 containers had been moved with tug power from Baltimore to Norfolk where the barge rolled over, capsized and sank at the pier. COGSA was incorporated by reference. The shipper was U.S. Lines which made a claim for the $7 million value of the contents of the container in the limitation proceeding, of which petitioner moved for summary judgment that the maximum amount of the claim would be $500 per container [46 U.S.C. 1304 (5); Hague Rules Art. IV (5)] or $46,500. (It should be noted that in the United States a petition for exoneration from or limitation of liability can be initiated by the defendant shipowner prior to a finding of liability). Regardless of its status as carrier to the original shippers of the goods, U.S. Lines is here a shipper contending that a container could never be the package for unit limitation purposes and that, in any event, unit limitation must be denied because shipper was never given adequate opportunity to declare excess value of the containers or their contents.