SHIPPING COMPANY'S LIABILITY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 290, 2 December 1908, Page 2

SHIPPING COMPANY'S LIABILITY

DAMAGE TO CAISGO. AX IMPORTANT JIDGMBNT. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. At the Magistrate's Court to-day, ill'. Hutchison. S.M., gavo judgment in the cases Andrew Lees and Henry Brooks anil Co. v. New Zealand Shipping Company. The action was brought as a test ease to ascertain whether certain stipulations ia the bill of lading exempting the shipping.company from liability for damage done in transit would hold good in view of the statute law of New Zealand contained in section M 0 of the Shipping ami Seamen Act of lt>o3, which provides that any such stipulation shall be null and void unless the Court holds it just and reusonulile. The amount claimed was ;C4OO !is 2d for damage done to part of a shipment of glass consigned from Antwerp by Brooks aand Co. to Andrew Lees, of Dunedin, which arrived by the Kakaia. The defendant company admitted the facts, and relied on the condition? in the bill of lading to relieve them of legal liability. There was a stipulation in the bill of lading that all articles of glass or containing glass were to be taken at shippers' risk. Tho question was whether this stipulation was valid in law. Judgment was given for plaintiffs for ,the amount claimed. Leave to appeal was granted.