Carrier's agent liability for delayed bills of lading turns on statutory duty and actual loss from expiry of letter of credit.

Under the Indian Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 1925, read with Article III, Rule 3, the carrier's agent must issue a bill of lading on the shipper's demand after receiving the goods into charge and should not defer issuance because of later instructions or a demand for bank guarantees, unless the claimant is not the shipper. Liability for damages depends on actual loss caused by the delay. Where the bills of lading were demanded before expiry of the letter of credit and issued only after expiry, the delay prevented negotiation of the credit and attracted liability. Where the request was made only after the credit had already expired and the cargo had been delivered, no actionable loss arose and no liability followed.

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Issues: Whether the carrier's agent was liable in damages for withholding or delaying issuance of bills of lading after receipt of mate's receipts, and whether such liability survived where the demand for bills of lading was made before expiry of the letter of credit in one matter and only after expiry in the other.

Analysis: Under the Indian Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 1925, read with Article III, Rule 3 of the Schedule, the carrier or the master or agent of the carrier, on demand of the shipper, is bound to issue a bill of lading after receiving the goods into charge. Once mate's receipts are issued and the shipper tenders them with the filled forms of bills of lading, the carrier's agent cannot postpone issuance on the basis of later instructions or an asserted demand for bank guarantees, unless the claimant is not the shipper. In the first matter, the bills of lading were demanded on 17.12.1978 and were issued only on 25.1.1979, after the letter of credit expired on 15.1.1979, so the delay deprived the shipper of the ability to negotiate the credit and the agent was liable for breach of statutory duty and negligence. In the second matter, however, the mate's receipts and request for bills of lading were tendered only on 19.1.1979, after the letter of credit had already expired and after delivery of the cargo to the buyer, so the alleged delay in issuing the bills of lading caused no actionable loss.

Conclusion: The carrier's agent was liable in the first matter and not liable in the second matter.

Final Conclusion: The appeals were disposed of by sustaining the decree against the appellant in one appeal and setting it aside in the other, with the liability turning on whether the delay in issuing bills of lading occurred before or after the expiry of the letter of credit.

Ratio Decidendi: A carrier's agent who has received mate's receipts and a shipper's demand for bills of lading must issue them without delay, and liability for damages arises only where the delay causes actual loss, such as preventing negotiation of a still-operative letter of credit.

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