There could be cases (and i have come across a few) where the Original bills of lading relating to a shipment are LOST.. They could have got lost in transit to consignee or the bank or elsewhere.. So is it the end of the world for the shipper or consignee..?? What should be done when the OBL is lost..??
If a negotiable bill of lading is lost, stolen, or destroyed, a court order can be secured and this court order advises the carrier (shipping line) to deliver the goods to the actual and final receiver of the cargo, if the entity claiming the goods gives a surety bond, for an amount approved by the court.. In such cases, the carrier also should receive an indemnity letter indemnifying the carrier or any person injured by delivery, against liability under the outstanding original bill.. The court also may order payment of reasonable costs and attorney’s fees to the carrier..
Or in some cases, certain lines accept the indemnity if it is signed by a bank who would then take joint liability to return the original bills of lading (if found)..
The indemnity generally has wording as below.. Please note that this is a “generic” format and most lines have their own requirement..
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“To the Owners and/or Charterers and/or operators and/or carrier and/or Agents and Masters of M.V.
In consideration of your issuing at my/our request a duplicate set of Bills of Lading for the goods mentioned below, viz.:
Goods: …………………………………………
No. of pkgs.: …………………………………………
Description: …………………………………………
Marks: …………………………………………
Bill of lading or other contract of carriage: …………………..
due to the fact that the original set has been lost I/we hereby agree and undertake to indemnify you and each of you from all consequences of so doing, and I/we undertake to hold you and each of you harmless and indemnified against any claims, liability, losses, costs, charges, fine damages and expenses (including any kind of legal expense) arisingfrom in consequence of or in any way connected to anybody claiming delivery of the goods as owner or assignee or as the holder of any Bill of Lading originally issued for these goods.
1. In this connection I/we especially undertake to hold you and each of you harmless and indemnified against any loss on account of differences in rate of exchange or depreciation of currency and/or depreciation of value and/or loss caused by currency restrictions or exchange restrictions issued by any authority.Furthermore, I/we undertake to produce and deliver to you or each of you not only the duplicate set of Bills of Lading, but also all Bills of Lading which were originally issued if these should later on be found.
2. In the event of any proceedings being commenced against you or any of your servants or agents in connection with the delivery of the goods as aforesaid to provide you or them from time to time with sufficient funds to defend the same.
3. If the vessel or any other vessel or property belonging to you should be arrested or detained or if the arrest or detention thereof goods as aforesaid to provide you or them from time to time with sufficient funds to defend the same.
ISSUANCE OF DUPLICATE BILL OF LADING IN CASE ORIGINAL LOST
4. As soon as all original Bills of Lading for the above goods shall have arrived and/or come into our possession, to produce and deliver the same to you whereupon our liability hereunder shall cease.
5. The liability of each and every person under this indemnity shall be joint and several and shall not be conditional upon your proceeding first against any person, whether or not such person is party to or liable under this indemnity.
6. This indemnity shall be construed in accordance with English law and each and every person liable under this indemnity shall at you request submit to the jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice of England. (This clause may be amended to show another jurisdiction where appropriate).
7. Where this indemnity has been joined in and countersigned by a bank, the issuer and the bank shall be jointly and severally liable hereunder.
Signature …………….
We hereby join in the foregoing undertaking:
Signature of the bank …………………”
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Hi,
we have a situation whereby the carrier cannot find the original bill of lading after freight forwarder have endorsed it. carrier asked freight forwarder to made a police report and then insist of a bank guarantee in order to release cargo. the fact for the matter the freight forwarder don’t even have the non negotiable bill of lading in hand. how can we resolve this issue? please advice.
to be honest
both the shipping bills were diffrent right from HBL number and number of packages.But the shipping agent clearing agent has clearly adviced us they will not clear it unless they are the same as what they received.clearly its the fault of my shipping agent who has not given me the original invoice after loading it through another forwarder and ithat forwarder has sent it to the clearing agent who has got the correct HBL and my shipping agent cocked up by happily sending me the one which was not updated and that caused the nightmare.
WHO DO i BLAME AND CAN i GET COMPENSATION?whom do I write with all this evidence I have with me?Is theer an Ombudsman i can take my cae to?Could you pleas help.I really appreciate your website.
thanks
Firstly you must ask your Shipping Agent which is the correct bill.. Did they give you the Original bill of lading..?? Are both bill of lading numbers the same and has the same container numbers and marks and numbers on it..?? In short are both bills similar except for the number of packages..??
I do needs some urgently
my shipping agent has given me a bill of lading with 5 pieces ofmy consignment but on arrival the Clearing agent has shown us a BOL which was sent to them by my shipping agent as 8 pieces and they would give us the delivery order because it does not match the Original Bill of Lading.What do we do now?Whose fault is it.?
Thanks
shan
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Hi Ahsan, thanks for visiting the site.. With regards to your problem, was my post http://shippingandfreightresource.com/2010/09/17/what-to-do-when-the-original-bill-of-lading-is-lost/ not clear..?? Do you have any specific problem with regard to this that you need assistance with..??
Hi,
Salam,
M working as commercial person in freight forwarding company,
today our customer lost 3 / OBL set by him rider whom collect that B/L from carrier.
kindly hardly advise. what the procedure to collect duplicate for releasing cargo?
B. Regards ………… Ahsan Yar Khan
in case the B/L set has been lost, the carrier requests the bank guarantee of 200% goods value. But liabality ends only when the lost documents are found (?!). does it mean the shipper needs to pay the bank guarantee for example for 1000 years? or does the guarantee has any time period? if something is reported to be lost or destroyed it cant be reexisted..there has to be a way out of it, no? if not, sooner or later the cost of guarantee has to reach over the real goods value. Please comment
Hi Abhi, in such cases, the line will ask for the copy of the commercial invoice in order to ascertain the amount of indemnity and the value of the cargo will play a big part in them deciding the amount of indemnity..
what is the amount to be mentioned on the joint indemnity/surety bond ? can the shipping line demand 150% of the Invoice amount on the indemnity ? How is the shipping line aware of the invoice amount ? how can they what is the price of the goods in the shipment?
I am a little bit confused here.
1. Who should provide a security bound to the carrier, (i.e. the bank or the shipper or the last person who hold the OBL?)
2. Who should take the action to the court? Carrier only or any one who has interests in the shipment? (i.e bank, shipper, consignee)
3. Where to file the case in front of court? (POD or POL or the place where may face third party claim for wrongful delivery?)
4. I though when the OB/L is lost, the shipper or the carrier can just simply obtain some kind of invalidating judgment from the court to render the missing bill of lading null and avoid, then reissue a new one.
I would be very appreciate if you could help me out here. Those questions has hunted for a while.
PLEASE BE GUIDED THAT WE ARE A NVOCC OPERATOR AND ARE HOLDING A MASTER BILL OF LADING DUE TO NON PAYMENT OF FREIGHT BY THE SHIPPER , WE HAD ISSUED A FREIGHT PREPAID WITH A CLAUSE I.E SUBJECT TO REALIZATION,SHIPPER NOT PAYING THE FREIGHT AND ALSO THE PREVIOUS SHIPMENTS FREIGHT ,MOREOVER THEY ARE CLAIMING IN THE INDIAN COURTS THAT WE HAVE MANIPULATED THE MASTER BL BY PUTTING OUR NAME, DETAILS OF THE CASE ARE ON FMC WEB-SITE DCKT 1880 , WE SEEK YOUR GUIDANCE HOW TO RECOVER OUR DUES AND CONVINCE THE COURT OF ACT OF MISLEADING & CHEATING BY THE SHIPPER
Hi Iain, pls can you elaborate on your question.. Do you mean that the bank is not prepared to issue a guarantee on your behalf..?? It is possible depending on the bank and the amount of risk that they want to take on behalf of the customer.. Did you try the steps mentioned in the above article vis-a-vis court order etc..?? The actual owner of the cargo whether the seller or the buyer hold the legal rights to the cargo always..
we have a situation where customer has lost original bills of lading and the bank will not countersign a letter of indemnity…what is the legar rights or who has legal erights?
Perhaps this is another topic then but I have an original (MSC) b/l in front of me with the following preprinted text:…
If this is a negotiable (To Order / of) Bill of Lading, one original Bill of Lading, duly endores must be surrendered by the Merchant to the Carrier (…) in exchange for goods or a delivery order. If this is a non-negotiable (straight) billl of lading …
which seems to imply that the “To Order Of” addition is pretty relevnt to making the b/l a negotiable document; in both cases the b/l will be an original, but the workings is different I have come to understand. I suppose the resolutionas you described is adequate for any lost original b/l, be a negotiable or not so that differentiation does not necessarily have to be made I think
Hi Paul, whether the bill is made out TO ORDER or not doesn’t influence whether the document is negotiable or non-negotiable.. Only an original bill of lading is recognised as a negotiable document whoever the consignee is..
Hi,
many b/l’s are not made out ‘to order’ and thereby become a non-negotiable document; in what way does that change the procedure in case of loss?