TRANSPORTATION LAW FINALS
Indemnity to be paid by the carrier in case of
BILL OF LADING
- Written acknowledgment of the receipt of goods
and an agreement to transport and to deliver
them at a specified place to a person named.
- Operates as a document of title
- As a RECEIPT: recites the date and place of
shipment, describes the goods as to quantity,
weight, dimensions, quality and value.
- As a CONTRACT: names the contracting parties,
fixes the route, destination, and freight rates or
changes and stipulates the rights and obligations
assumed by the parties.
- The issuance of a bill of lading carries the
presumption that the goods were delivered to
the carrier; prima facie evidence of the receipt of
goods by the carrier
 SHIPPED BILL OF LADING
- The bill of lading to be issued after the goods are
loaded by the carrier, master, or agent
 CONTRACT OF ADHESION
- Provisions at the back of the bill of lading, in fine
print, is a contract of adhesion; prepared and
drafted by only one party
- Not prohibited
 FORM and FORMALITIES
- Maritime Commerce
1. Name, registry and tonnage of the vessel
2. Name of the captain and his domicile
3. Port of loading and unloading
4. Name of the shipper
5. Name of the consignee
6. Quantity, quality, number of packaged and
marks of merchandise
7. Freightage and primage stipulated
- Must be signed within 24hrs after receipt of
cargo, 4 copies
- Overland Transportation
1. Name, surname and residence of the shipper
2. Name, surname and residence of the carrier
3. Name, surname and residence of the person
to whom goods are to be sent
4. Description of goods
5. Cost of transportation
6. Date on which shipment is made
7. Place of delivery of the carrier
8. Place and time at which delivery to
consignee shall be made
9.
delay
 PARTIES
a. Shipper
b. Carrier
c. Consignee
- Liability of consignee arises:
1. Contract of agency bet the shipper and
the consignee
2. Acceptance of the bill of lading
3. Consignee’s availment of the stipulation
pour autrui
 DELIVERY TO THE CARRIER
- When the goods are ready for and have been
placed in the exclusive possession, custody and
control of the carrier for the purpose of their
immediate transportation and the carrier has
accepted them
 PERIOD
- If period has been fixed, it must be made within
such time, for failure to do so carrier shall pay
the indemnity
- If there is no period fixed, carrier shall be bound
to forward them in the first shipment of the
same or similar goods which he may make point
where he must deliver them
 DELIVERY W/O SURRENDER OF BILL OF LADING
- GR: bill of lading shall be returned to the captain
with the receipt for the merchandise mentioned
therein
- E: when the goods to be delivered are perishable
goods to be delivered via telephone calls
 REFUSAL OF CONSIGNEE TO TAKE DELIVERY
a. When he proves that he cannot make use of the
goods to be transported without the others;
b. Goods are rendered useless for sale or
consumption for particular purposes for which
they are to be used;
c. If among the damaged goods there should be
some in good condition and without defect
whatsoever, the refusal of consignee to take
delivery shall apply only to the damaged ones
 PERIOD FOR FILING CLAIMS
a. Damage is apparent (immediately)
- Upon receipt of the package’
b. Damage is not apparent (within 24hrs)
- Within 24hrs following the receipt of
merchandise
- However, if there is agreement to extend the
24hr period, extension is an admitted fact
c. When consignee receives the merchandise,
paying the freight charges, without protest, all
claims against the carrier are extinguished
 PERIOD FOR FILING ACTION
1. Loss or damage of cargo: within 1 year after
delivery of the goods or date when the goods
should have been delivered
2. Misdelivery (or conversion): 10 years for breach
of contract or 4 years for quasi-delict
3. 6 years upon oral contract
LIMITED LIABILITY RULE
- “No vessel, no liability”, expresses in a nutshell
the limited liability rule. The ship owner or
agent’s liability is merely co-extensive with his
interest in the vessel such that a total loss
thereof results in its extinction. The total
destruction of the vessel extinguishes maritime
liens because there is no longer any res to which
it can attach.
- Burden of proof: Claimants or ship owner or
captain
- EXCEPTIONS:
1. The injury or death to a passenger is due
either to the fault of the ship owner, or to
the concurring negligence of the ship owner
and the captain;
2. Where the vessel is insured;
3. In workmen’s compensation claims;
4. By reason of fault or negligence
MARITIME/MARINE PROTEST
 MARITIME PROTEST:
- Any action for damages arising from collision
should be preceded by a marine protest, which
must be filed within 24hrs from the time collision
took place before a competent authority at the
first port where the collision took place or at the
first port of arrival filed by the captain of the
vessel
 MARINE PROTEST:
- Declaration on oath by the master, of the
circumstances attending the damage or loss of
his vessel, intended to show that the loss
accrued by the perils of the sea, and conducting
with the protestation against any liability of the
owner to the freighters.
- Primary evidence in the investigation of accident
- Marine protest shall be submitted:
a. Actual physical damage to property
exceeding 1,000
b. Materail damage affecting
seaworthiness or efficiency of a vessel
c. Stranding, grounding or sinking of the
vessel or fire on board
d. Loss of life
e. Injury causing any person to remain
incapacitated for a period in exceed of
70hrs
f. Any deviation from course or delay
beyond control of the master
g. Any serious breach of charter party
h. Failure of consignee to take delivery of
cargoes
i. Arrival of vessel under stress
j. To provide additional information
relevant to the incident or
circumstances
EXCEPTION:
Not required in minor vessels, riverboats and
those carrying passengers from ship to shore
 PERIOD OF PRESCRIPTION
1. Within 1 year after delivery of the goods or
the date when the goods should have been
delivered
2. 10 years for breach of a written contract
3. Within 6 years upon oral contract
4. Within 4 years for quasi-delict
5. If filed by the insurer, 1 yr after delivery of
the goods
6. 10 years if between the shipper or consignee
and insurer
LOANS ON BOTTOMRY AND RESPONDENTIA
 BOTTOMRY
- Contract by which a shipowner pledges the ship
as security for a loan to finance a voyage, the
lender losing the money of the ship is lost during
the voyage
- Shipowner pledges the ship’s bottom or keel
 RESPONDENTIA
- Loan secured by the cargo on one’s ship rather
than the ship itself
- Depends upon the safe arrival in the port of
goods on which it is made
- May be executed:
a. Public instrument
b. Policy signed by the contracting parties
c. Private instrument
 DEMURRAGE
- Compensation provided for in the contract of
affreightment for the detention of the vessel
beyond the laytime or that period of time agreed
on for loading and unloading of cargo
- Given to compensate the shipowner for the
nonuse of the vessel
 PRIMAGE
- Small gratuity traditionally paid to the master of
a ship for the care of the cargo
 HUSBANDING AGENT
- General agent of the owner in relation to the
ship, with powers, among others, to engage the
vessel for general freight and the usual
conditions and settle freight and adjust averages
with the merchant
 JETTISON
- Act of voluntarily throwing cargo overboard to
lighten or stabilize a ship that is in immediate
danger
- Order:
1st deck; greatest weight and smallest value
2nd below upper deck; greatest weight and
smallest value
 SALVAGE
- Compendation allowed to persons by whose
assiatnce a ship or her cargo has been saved, in
whole or in part, from impending peril on the
sea, or in recovering such property from actual
loss, as in case of shipwreck, derelict, or
recapture
- Requisites:
a. A marine peril
b. Service voluntarily rendered
c. Success in whole or in part
WARSAW CONVENTION
- Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules
Relating to International Carriage by Air, signed
at Warsaw
- Applies to all international carriage of persons,
luggage or goods performed by aircraft for
reward
 INTERNATIONAL CARRIAGE
- Any carriage in which, according to the contract
made by the parties, the place of departure and
the place of destination, are situated either
within the territories of 2 High Contracting
Parties, or within the territory of a single High
Contracting Party, even though the power is not
a party of the Convention.
- 2 categories of intl transportation:
1. Where the place of departure and the place
of destination are situated within the
territories of 2 High Contracting Parties
2. Where the place of departure and the place
of destination are within the territory of a
single High Contracting Party
- High Contracting Party: signatories thereto and
those which subsequently adhered to it
 AIR CARRIER
- A person who undertakes, whether directly or
indirectly, or by lease or any other
arrangements, to engage in air transportation or
air commerce.
 DOMESTIC AIR TRANSPORTATION
- Air transportation within the limits of the PH
territory
 FOREIGN AIR TRANSPORTATION
- Air transportation between the PH and any place
outside it or wholly outside the PH
 VENUE OF ACTION
- At the option of the Plaintiff, in the territory of
one of the High Contracting Parties, either
before the Court having jurisdiction:
a. Carrier is ordinarily resident
b. His principal place of business
c. Establishment by which the contract has
been made
d. Before the court having jurisdiction at the
place of destination
 AIRLINE’S CONTRACT OF CARRIAGE
1. Contract to deliver a cargo or merchandise
to its destination
2. Contract to transport passengers to their
destination
 LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
a. Liability to passengers (125,000 francs per
passenger)
 b. Liability for checked-in baggage (250 francs
per kilogram)
c. Liability for hand-carried baggage (5,000
francs per passenger)
 WILLFUL MISCONDUCT
- Limit of liability only applies when the death or
injury to person, or destruction, loss or damage
to property or delay in its transport is not
attributable to or attended by any willful
misconduct, bad faith, recklessness or otherwise
improper conduct on the part of any official or
employee for which the carrier is responsible
- Warsaw convention does not exclude liability for
other breaches of contract by the carrier (Alitalia
vs IAC)
 PRESCRIPTION
- Right to damages shall be filed within 2 years,
reckoned from the date of arrival at the
destination, or from the date on which the
aircraft ought to have arrived or from the date
on which carriage stopped

DOCTRINE OF LAST CLEAR CHANCE

- A person who has the last clear chance or
opportunity of avoiding an accident,
notwithstanding the negligent acts of his
opponent or the negligence of a 3rd person which
is imputed to his opponent, is considered in law
solely responsible for the consequences of the
accident
- Cannot be applied in collision cases
- If both vessels may be blamed for the collision,
each one shall suffer its own damages, and both
shall be solidarily responsible for the losses and
damages suffered by their cargoes
- Bot vessels were negligent, no longer relevant
whether the other vessel has the last clear
chance of avoiding the collision.