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Editor: Rod Sullivan
Profession: Maritime Attorney

Category: Supreme Court Rulings

Tropical Shipping, a Riviera Beach, Florida container ship operator, has filed a brief with the United States District Court in Florida asserting that it doesn't have to comply with the Harter Act on shipments from foreign countries to the United States. The Harter Act is the Act which protects shippers of cargo from those nasty clauses in bills of lading absolving ocean carriers from liablity if they damage cargo en route.

Tropical's position is outlandish.

In the case of Knott v. Botany Mills, 179 U.S. 69, 75-76 (U.S. 1900) the Supreme Court set forth the rule of law that the Harter Act, 46 U.S.C. Sections 190-196 applies to bills of lading issued in foreign ports for cargo being carried to the United States. The Court's rationale was as follows:

In their usual and natural meaning, the words "from any port in the United States" include all voyages, whether domestic or foreign, which begin in this country; the words "to any port in the United States" include all voyages, whether domestic or foreign, which end in this country; and the words "between ports of the United States and foreign ports" include all foreign voyages which either begin or end here.......And no reason has been suggested why a foreign vessel should come within the benefit of the third section relaxing the warranty of seaworthiness, and not come within the prohibition of the first section affirming the unlawfulness of stipulations against liability for negligence.

The rule established by the Supreme Court in Knott has gone unchallenged for 106 years until Tropical raised it again in 2006. See Netherlands American Steam Nav. Co. v. Wagner, 12 F.2d 640 (2d Cir. 1926), cert. den. 273 U.S. 735. ("....the Harter Act......governs ocean transportation of goods into this country as well as out of it....); The Tampico, 151 F. 689, 690 (D. Cal. 1907); The Frey, 92 F. 667 (D.N.Y. 1899)(...foreign vessels.....are bound by its [the Harter Act's] limitations and are subject to the declared policy of this country in that regard...); The Ferncliff, 22 F. Supp. 728, 738 (D. Md. 1938).