BILL OF LADING

Types of Bill of Lading

The CONGENBILL

(See also the comments made by Bimco by clicking here)

The CONGENBILL (edition 1994) was also adopted by BIMCO and is destined to be used with charter-parties.

The CONGENBILL differs from the conventional bill of lading because it is essentially a receipt for the goods which were loaded on board the vessel. On page 2 one finds neither "Pre-carriage by", "Place of receipt by pre-carrier" and "Place of receipt by on-carrier" so that the CONGENBILL cannot be used as through bill of lading.

The terms and conditions of the CONGENBILL are in agreement with those of the charter-party :

"(1) All terms and conditions, liberties and exceptions of the Charter Party, dated as overleaf, including the Law and Arbitration Clause, are herewith incorporated.",

which are of public order. Only a few clauses are printed on the back of the bill of lading such as: the "Both to Blame Collision Clause", the "New Jason Clause", the "General Average Clause", e.a. In the additional clauses (riders or side clauses) other clauses can be added such as: the "Demise clause", the "Chamber or Shipping War Risks 1 + 2 Clause", e.a. (See also the worked-out GENCON Charter-party.)

Because the Hague Rules or the Hague-Visby Rules (and any other national law incorporating these rules) don't apply to the charter party, their provisions can only be incorporated through the "General Paramount Clause". Two different situations may occur:

The charterer is the shipper of his own goods and also the receiver of these goods. In this case the Hague-Visby Rules will only serve as contractual conditions towards the charter party but not towards the bill of lading since it will not have been negotiated, in other words, transferred to a third party.
The charterer is the shipper of his own goods but sells these goods to a third party so that he will not be the receiver of these goods. In that case the bill of lading will have been negotiated and the Hague-Visby Rules will apply to the bill of lading.

The Congenbill, just like every bill of lading to be used with a charter party, is negotiable in the same way as the Conlinebill (or any other bill of lading for the liner trade) and the endorsee is presumed to have knowledge of the terms of the charter party since the bill of lading refers to them with the words: "All terms and conditions ............ of the charter party ............" (see the Genconbill, Conditions of Carriage, Clause 1).

We mentioned already several times before that the terms and conditions of the charter party are fully lawful as long as the bill of lading has not been negotiated. If the bill of lading has been negotiated, than all terms and conditions of the charter party which are in contradiction with the Hague-Visby Rules, are null and void and the provisions of the Hague-Visby Rules prevail.

When the master signs a bill of lading in fulfillment of a charter party, he does so in the owner's name and not in the name of the charterer or the shipper, since the bill of lading is a typical document issued by the ship owner. In practice it is not the master who signs but someone else (mostly the agent) signs in his name: "In witness where off the Master or Agent of the said vessel has signed ...........". Often, the charter party shows the following clause: "The Master, Charterers and/or their Agents are hereby authorized by Owner to sign on Master and/or Owners' behalf Bills of Lading as presented in accordance with Mates' Receipt and or Tally Clerks receipt without prejudice to the Charter party". (See also Signing of the Bill of Lading.)

Click here for a worked-out model of a congenbill.

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