| Admiralty (maritime) law |
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| History |
| Features |
| Contract of carriage /charterparty |
| Parties |
| Judiciaries |
| International organizations |
| International conventions |
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| International Codes |
A consignee is a person or entity to which goods areconsigned.[1] In acontract of carriage, theconsignee is theentity who is financially responsible (the buyer) for the receipt of ashipment.[2]
If a sender dispatches an item to a receiver via a delivery service, the sender is theconsignor, the recipient is theconsignee, and the deliverer is thecarrier.
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This is a difficult area oflaw, in that it regulates the masstransportation industry, which cannot always guarantee arrival on time or thatgoods will not be damaged in the course of transit. Two other problems are that unpaid consignors orfreight carriers may wish to hold goods until payment is made,[3] and thatfraudulent individuals may seek to take delivery in place of thelegitimate consignees. The key to resolving such disputes lies in thedocumentation. The standard form of contract is abill of lading which, in international shipping law, is simply a contract for the carriage of goods entered into between the shipper and the carrier that is not acharter party.[4] It is always a term of that contract that the carrier must deliver the goods to a specific receiver.
Straight bills of lading by land or sea, or airwaybill are not documents of title to the goods that they represent. They do no more than require delivery of the goods to the named consignee and (subject to the shipper's ability to redirect the goods) to no other. This differs from "order" or "bearer" bills of lading, which are possessory title documents and negotiable, i.e. they can be endorsed and so transfer the right to take delivery to the last endorsee. This aspect of shipping law is regulated by theHague Rules, and the laws of individual countries, e.g. the UKCarriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992 and the U.S. Pomerene Act 1916. There is some international dispute as to whether the consignee on a straight bill must produce the bill in order to take delivery. The U.S. position is that the person taking delivery must prove his or her identity but, as inHong Kong, there is no need to present the bill itself. In the UK there are conflictingobiter dicta in "The Rafaela S" [2003] 2 Lloyd's Rep. 113 and "The Happy Ranger" [2002] 2 AER (Comm) 23, so the matter must remain unclear even though there are serious problems, for example, arising from the everyday occurrence ofcargo being discharged against letters of indemnity when original bills of lading are not yet available to be presented at the dischargeport.
The rights of the consignee under an air waybill are regulated by theWarsaw Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, 1929 and theMontreal Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air 1999 and the relevant state laws (which may be one law chosen as the proper law by the parties, or any combination of laws representing the seller, buyer, consignor, and carrier.)This is very important as per export documents.
The receiver can be different than that of the consignee.