United Van Lines, Inc, B-146559
| Decision Date | 07 May 1962 |
| Docket Number | B-146559 |
| Parties | UNITED VAN LINES, INC. |
| Court | Comptroller General of the United States |
We refer to your letter of February 15, 1962, concerning your uvl order 696-55-60, in which you request reconsideration of our decision of January 22, 1962, b-146659. That decision sustained our settlement certificate, dated August 29, 1961 which disallowed your claim for $100.89, the additional freight charges alleged to be due for transporting a shipment of government property from grand prairie, Texas, to EL toro California, under government bill of lading no. A 1828709, in July 1960. We held in the decision that since a carrier cannot waive the applicable tariff rule requiring a notation on the shipping documents concerning a shipper's reservation of a specific quantity of van space, the absence of the required notation is a defect which cannot be cured by later statements of the shipper's intention.
You state that you recognize the validity of the holding as applied to commercial traffic moving under commercial bills of lading, but, relying on a view of the "office of the judge advocate general, " expressed in a letter of October 19, 1961, to you, that the terms and conditions of the government bill of lading, and not those of your own bill of lading, constitute the contract between your company and the government, you urge that in this case the contract of carriage embodied in the government bill of lading, as later amended by the government bill of lading correction, is controlling. Also, you ask us in effect to reconcile our view with that of the judge advocate general as to whether on government shipments, the carrier's bill of lading or the government bill of lading constitutes the contract of carriage. We are not informed of the particular matter or set of facts to which the advice you received in the letter dated October 19, 1961, related, and we are not aware that a situation comparable to that here involved was then under consideration.
Section 309 of the budget and accounting act, 1921, 31 U.S.C. 49 provides that the comptroller general shall prescribe the "forms, systems, and procedure for administrative appropriation and fund accounting in the several departments and establishments" of the government. Among the standard forms prescribed by the comptroller general for the procurement of freight transportation furnished for the account of the United States is the U.S. Government bill of lading, standard form 1103--- shown in appendix a, chapter 3000, title 5, of the general accounting office policy and procedures manual for guidance of federal agencies. The front of the bill of lading recites that the property shipped is received by the transportation company named in the bill of lading, subject to conditions named on the reverse hereof.' the back of the bill of lading, under the heading "conditions, " provides:
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