Bernard Screen Printing Corporation v. Meyer Line, 265
Decision Date | 14 July 1972 |
Docket Number | No. 265,Docket 71-1764.,265 |
Citation | 464 F.2d 934 |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Parties | BERNARD SCREEN PRINTING CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MEYER LINE, Defendant, and Universal Terminal & Stevedoring Corporation, Defendant-Appellee. |
Martin B. Mulroy, Peter W. Flanagan, Thomas D. Toy, Hill, Rivkins, Warburton, McGowan & Carey, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant.
James M. Leonard, Albert S. Commette, Brown, Quencer & Commette, New York City, for defendant-appellee.
Before LUMBARD, WATERMAN and FEINBERG, Circuit Judges.
We affirm the judgment order entered below limiting the liability of defendant-appellee (Universal), the negligent stevedore, to $500.00. Reference is had to the lower court opinion, reported at 328 F.Supp. 288 (S.D.N.Y.1971) for exposition of the uncontroverted and conceded facts.
The provisions of Meyer Line's bill of lading, totally drafted by it, include clause 1(J):
This provision gives to all "legal entities" reasonably comprehended within its language, and, specifically to "independent contractors" such as the stevedore here, the benefit which the carrier and the ship have under COGSA to limit liability to a maximum of $500 per unit "for any loss or damage to or in connection with the transportation of goods" unless the goods are shipped pursuant to a specific declaration of nature or value, under an adjusted rate. 46 U. S.C. § 1304(5).
Obviously such a clause as 1(J), which limits by contract one's recourse to the courts to pursue common law rights of action, must be looked at with distrust; and, inasmuch as the clause is drawn by the carrier and the shipper is, for all practical purposes, completely in the carrier's power, the clause, obviously, should be strictly construed against the carrier and any person benefitted thereby.1 However, in Robert C. Herd & Co. v. Krawill Machinery Corp., 359 U.S. 297, 79 S.Ct. 766, 3 L.Ed.2d 820 (1959), the Supreme Court, while unanimously denying to a negligent stevedore the classification of a "carrier" under 46 U.S.C. § 1301(a), unanimously stated:
This language has prompted a belief that a cargo-carrier and a cargo-owner may contractually extend to a stevedore the benefit enjoyed by carriers under COGSA's $500 limitation on damages, and we consider ourselves bound by a previous decision of this...
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