Interoceánica de Seguros SA (the plaintiff), an insurance company acting under an assignment of rights, claimed for damage to cargo carried in containers to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. The plaintiff alleged that the carriage was multimodal. The parties agreed that the applicable law was the United States Carriage of Goods by Sea Act of 1936 (US COGSA), which mirrors the Hague Rules, for the maritime leg; and that the United States Harter Act applied from the moment the containers were discharged until their delivery at the warehouse of the consignee. As the damage occurred after the containers were discharged from the vessel, the plaintiff alleged that the sea carrier was still liable under the multimodal transport arrangement and that the Harter Act did not allow for limitation of liability.

The Second Maritime Court found that the modality of the carriage was not multimodal but port to port. The Court recalled that § 1303.2 of the US COGSA (art 3.2 of the Hague Rules) states that the carrier’s obligation of practicing due diligence must be performed before and at the beginning of the voyage and at the moment of discharging the merchandise from the ship. That frames the carrier’s liability only from the port of uploading until the port of discharge, not beyond that moment. As the damage occurred after the containers were discharged from the vessel, the Court dismissed the claim. The plaintiff appealed the decision.

Held: The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), acting as Court of Maritime Appeals, affirmed the decision. The SCJ agreed with the conclusions of the lower court. The SCJ added that, in multimodal carriage, it is the first carrier who is normally held liable for the entire carriage, but as in this case it was proven that the carriage was in a port to port modality and that the damage did not occur during the maritime portion of the carriage, there is no liability assignable to the maritime carrier.