This was a claim brought by JSC Eurosip Spb-TS (the claimant) against LLC HMM Vladivostok (the defendant) for damages caused by non-performance of a marine agency contract. The defendant acted as an agent for the claimant and was obligated to organise the transportation of the claimant’s containers exclusively on the ships of HMM Co Ltd (the shipowner) in the Port of Vostochnyi, owned by LLC VSC (the port).

The claimant transferred to the defendant containers to be transported on 6 March 2022 on the Fitz Roy 021S. On 2 March 2022, the defendant informed the claimant that the shipowner had stopped carrying out transportation from the port. The voyages to be performed were cancelled. After that, several other voyages of the shipowner’s ships from the port were cancelled. As a result, the claimant suffered losses caused by the prolonged storage of the relevant containers. Some of the containers were transported on the Hyundai Unity 0139S on 17 April 2022. The claimant submitted a claim for losses caused by the defendant's failure to organise and perform the carriage on its behalf.

The claimant argued that it had concluded contracts of carriage for the relevant containers by booking places onboard the ships. Upon booking, draft bills of lading were issued. These drafts provided evidence of conclusion of contracts of carriage.

The Court of first instance found in favour of the defendant. It concluded that the claimant had failed to prove the defendant's fault in causing damage to the claimant. The claimant appealed.

Held: The appeal is dismissed. The judgment of the Court of first instance is upheld.

According to art 142(1) of the Merchant Shipping Code of Russia, a carrier issues a bill of lading after the acceptance of goods for carriage. These provisions fully correspond to art 1.7 of the Hamburg Rules, pursuant to which a bill of lading means 'a document which evidences a contract of carriage by sea and the taking over or loading of the goods by the carrier, and by which the carrier undertakes to deliver the goods against surrender of the document'. Under art 3.3 of the Hague Rules, the carrier, master, or agent of the vessel, on demand of the shipper, issues to the shipper a bill of lading after receiving the goods into its charge. Therefore, a bill of lading may be signed and issued to the shipper only after the goods are received for carriage. The date of acceptance of the goods in a bill of lading is the date of their actual receipt, and not the date of their prospective acceptance. In this case, the draft bills of lading cannot be considered real bills of lading because the carrier did not actually receive the cargo. Therefore, these documents cannot serve as evidence of the conclusion of a contract for the carriage of goods by sea. Thus, there was no carriage contract between the claimant and the defendant, or between the claimant and the shipowner, and the claimant could not claim damages due to non-performance of carriage.