Law:

Section:

Breach of contract---   Conversion-Contract of carriage of goods by sea-Bill of lading-Ship-owner delivering goods without production of bill of lading does so at his peril-Genera exemption in bill of lading not effective if it defeats main object of contract.   Held, that a ship-owner who delivers without production of the bill of lading does so at his peril.   Where the contract was to deliver, on production of the bill of lading, to the person entitled under the bill of lading, i.e., "unto order or his or their assigns", that is to say, to the order of the shipper, if they had not assigned the bill of lading, or to their assigns, if they had, but the shipping company did not deliver the goods to any such person, but delivered them, without production of the bill of lading, to a person who was not entitled to receive them, on such person and his Bank offering to the Shipping Company an indemnity bond:   Held, that the shipping company was liable to the shippers for breach of contract unless there was some term in the bill of lading protecting them. They were also liable in conversion unless likewise so protected.   Further, that the contract had, as one of its main objects, the proper delivery of the goods by the shipping company "unto order or his or their assigns", against production of the bill of lading. It would defeat this object entirely if the shipping company was at liberty, at its own will and pleasure, to deliver the goods to somebody else, to someone not entitled at all, without being liable for the consequences. Such a fundamental breach could not be allowed to be passed unnoticed under the cloak of a general exemption embodied in the bill of lading.   Glynn v. Margetson & Co. 1893 A C 351; G. H. Renton & Co. v. Palmyra Trading Corporation of Panama (1956) 1 Q B 462; United Africa Company v. Saka Owoade (1955) A C 130; Bontex Knitting Works Ltd. v. St. John's Garage (1944) 60 T L R 44, 253; Alexander v. Railway .Executive (1951) 2 K B 882; Karsales (Harrow) Ltd. v. Wallis (1955) 1 W L R 936; Smackman v. General Steam Navigation Co. (1908) 13 Com. Cas. 196; Ashby v. Tolhurst (1937) 2 K…