This was an appeal in cassation against the judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal, 26 March 1986. La Boisserolle bought plywood panels from Sofibel de Belabo, which were put in containers in Douala (Cameroon) and loaded onto the Suzanne X, operated by Société navale chargeurs Delmas-Vieljeux (Delmas-Vieljeux), to be transported to Rouen (France). The master of the ship issued a bill of lading free of reservations. Upon unloading, damage to the goods was noted. La Boisserolle sued Delmas-Vieljeux and the master of the ship for compensation for this damage.

La Boisserolle complained that the judgment rejected its claim. It argued that the absence of reservations on the bill of lading created a presumption of receipt of the goods in good condition against the carrier, which it cannot challenge by proof to the contrary with regard to the third party holder of the bill of lading in good faith. Thus the Court of Appeal violated art 3.4 of the Hague-Visby Rules. The Court of Appeal also did not respond to La Boisserolle's submissions which, based on an expert report, maintained that when loading the goods onto the ship, the plastic envelopes of the packages were already damaged.

Held: Appeal dismissed.

Article 3.4 of the Hague-Visby Rules, relating to the probative value of the particulars of the bill of lading, does not prohibit the carrier, even in the absence of reservations made on this document, to establish that the damage is due to one of the causes likely to exonerate the carrier from its liability. The Court of Appeal did not violate this provision by finding the existence of an inherent vice of the goods. The Court of Appeal found that the packaging of the panels was normal in appearance and externally complete, and that La Boisserolle did not provide proof that the damage was detectable from the outside when the goods were taken over by the carrier. The Court thus responded to La Boisserolle's submissions.