The owners of a ship chartered to carry a cargo of barley claimed right to deliver the cargo at the port of delivery, Leith, in bulk, and not in sacks as received by them at Portland, Oregon. The bills of lading acknowledged receipt of a certain number of sacks of barley ‘to be delivered in the like good order and condition,’ and the charter-party provided that the vessel was to discharge according to the custom at the port of delivery. The evidence showed that this trade to Leith in any quantity began in that from that year there had been about 80 cargoes, all save two delivered according to the alleged custom, but 44 to two firms who spoke of the delivery as having been merely for their convenience; that taking the last ten years 24 out of 32 cargoes had gone to those firms; that an important witness in favour of the alleged custom maintained that it freed the shipowner from responsibility for any shortage of sacks; that one cargo at least during the period from 1896 had been delivered in sacks; and that in correspondence the alleged custom had never been admitted by the shipowner.
Held that the alleged custom had not been proved.
Lord Chancellor (Buckmaster), Lord Kinnear, Lord Atkinson, and Lord Shaw
[1916] UKHL 293, 53 SLR 293
Bailii
England and Wales
Transport
Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.630679