Delivery disputes Task description & requirements Assignment Question On 12th March 2017, a farm… 1 answer below »
Delivery disputes Task description & requirements Assignment Question On 12th March 2017, a farm in Tasmania, Backyard Poultry, sold frozen chicken to Kai Bo Supermarket in Hong Kong at a CIF price of US$25,000 in total. Backyard Poultry arranged with ABC Line Limited to ship these frozen chicken on board the ship Grand Tasmania. The ship agent on behalf of the Master of the Grand Tasmania issued a set of three bills of lading dated 14th March 2017 to Backyard Poultry. These bills of lading contain in Clause 2 the “General Paramount Clause” in the following terms: “The Hague Rules contained in the International Convention for the Unification of certain rules relating to Bills of Lading, dated Brussels the 25th August 1924 as enacted in the country of shipment shall apply to this contract. When no such enactment is in force in the country of shipment, the corresponding legislation of the country of destination shall apply, but in respect of shipments to which no such enactments are compulsorily applicable, the terms of the said Convention shall apply”. Clause 3 of the bills of lading further provided: “This Bill of Lading is subject to Hong Kong law and practice. Any dispute arising from this contract shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court in Hong Kong”. Box 2 of these bills of lading bore the name of theconsignee, “To Kai Bo Supermarket”. Backyard Poultry endorsed these bills of lading to Kai Bo Supermarket and sent them by courier. The bills of lading arrived at the office of Kai Bo Supermarket in Hong Kong on 20th March 2017. These frozen chicken arrived in Hong Kong on 31st March 2017. Upon arrival of the frozen chicken at the Modern Terminal in Hong Kong, a Mr Cheung, represented himself as a staff of Kai Bo Supermarket, but without a bill of lading in his hand, came to collect all these frozen chicken. ABC Line Limited released the goods to him. Around late afternoon on the same day, a Mr Yeung, an authorised representative of Kai Bo Supermarket with a bill of lading in his hand came to ask ABC Line Limited to release the goods. ABC Line Limited informed Mr Yeung that it had released the goods to Mr Cheung. Kai Bo Supermarket found itself in difficulty as it had promised to deliver such frozen chicken to the buyer in the People’s Republic of China under a separate sale and purchase agreement. Discuss: a Kai Bo Supermarket’s entitlement to sue ABC Line Limited before a court in Australia [10 Marks] b Potential liability of ABC Line Limited [10 Marks] The discussion must: (a) Be framed in terms of likely legal consequences if the matter proceeded to trial and discuss all potential arguments raised by the factual matrix.
