The Hector

The Commercial Court has recently identified a further exception to the general rule that a bill of lading signed for the master and containing a demise clause is a contract of carriage with the owners of the vessel. In Sunrise Maritime Inc. v. Uvisco Ltd (The Hector),1 the ship was time chartered on NYPE terms to US Express Lines (“USEL”). The charterparty provided, inter alia, “master to authorise charterers … to sign bill of lading on their behalf, in conformity with mates’ receipts”. The vessel was sub-chartered pursuant to the terms of a Gencon charterparty to Uvisco, the f.o.b. buyers of a consignment of rolled steel billets. An unorthodox provision of the sub-charter called for (owners’) bills of lading to be dated by a prescribed date upon provision by charterers of a letter of indemnity. The mate’s receipt, issued at Tuapse in the Russian Federation, was claused “freight payable as per charterparty”, identifying the charterparty by date. After the date appearing on the face of the bill but before it was, in fact issued, the master signed a letter authorizing agents at the load port to sign a single bill of lading. It included a statement prohibiting the issue of a liner bill. An ante-dated freight pre-paid bill in Conline form calling for discharge at Puerto Barrios in Guatemala was signed in London, immediately beneath the standard pre-printed “for and on behalf of the master”, by an associate company of the sub-charterers. The bill recorded on its face, “Carrier: U.S. Express Lines” and the standard Conline cl. 17 on the reverse identified the owner of the vessel as the carrier.