IMPORTANT SHIPPING CASE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 9319, 13 June 1891, Page 4

IMPORTANT SHIPPING CASE.

(FEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.! Dunedin, June 12.

An important shipping case, Spedding v. New Zealand Shipping Company, was decided to day by Mr Carew, R.M. The plaintiff presented a bill of lading, but the Company refused to give up possession of the goods till a claim for freight, amounting to £44, had been paid. The plaintiff paid under protest, and now seeks to recover the amount. The Magistrate held that the bill of lading showed there was a debt due tor freight from the time the goods were shipped; consequently a lien attached from the same time. If the debt was vpaid the onus of proof lay with the plaintiff. There was no provision in the bill of lading to support the defendant’s contention that there was an extra charge when the freight was payable in the Colony. As to the rate of freight, be took the Company’s printed freight rales as a guide, and oouid do nothing as to the measurements but accept the plaintiffs admissions. As to the plaintiff’s oiaim for delivery of pianos under a bill of lading, he held a through bill of lading from Hamburg to New Zealand, which the Company declined to recognise, except on payment of freights. Bis Worship held that there was no evidence making the Company a party to the bill, or bound by it. Their contention that they merely acted as common carriers between Loudon and Dunedin was n good defence. Judgment would be for tho plaintiff on the first count for £l7, and for the defendants on the second count.