The plaintiff bought rice from American Commodity Co (ACC) and required ACC to have the rice shipped from California to Jordan. ACC hired defendant Globerunners, a non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC), to act as its agent to co-ordinate the entire shipment. Globerunners, in turn, hired Mediterranean Shipping Co (Mediterranean Shipping) to transport the cargo by sea. When unloading in Jordan, the rice was found to be contaminated with various odours and infested with insects, and was ultimately condemned by the Jordanian health authorities. Therefore, the plaintiff brought an action against Globerunners and Mediterranean Shipping, seeking partial summary judgment on the issue of whether it has established a prima facie case for liability under COGSA/the Hague Rules. In addition, the plaintiff sought partial summary judgment on the issue of whether defendants were entitled to package limitation under COGSA/the Hague Rules.

Held: Regarding the first motion for partial summary judgment, the court held that neither the clean bills of lading nor the third-party inspections sufficed to show the goods were in good condition when defendants received them, because the damage to the goods might have occurred in ACC’s warehouse, before either Globerunners or Mediterranean Shipping took control of the cargo containers.

Regarding the second motion for partial summary judgment, the plaintiff argued that the COGSA/the Hague Rules package limitation did not apply because Mediterranean Shipping deviated unreasonably from the itinerary on the bills of lading. However, the court held that a geographic deviation is unreasonable when it ‘substantially increases the exposure of cargo to foreseeable dangers that would have been avoided had no deviation occurred’ and the determination of unreasonableness ‘depends upon an assessment of all the surrounding circumstances’. The court found that Mediterranean Shipping followed its customary routes and that this was not an unreasonable deviation. Therefore, plaintiff’s motions for partial summary judgment were denied.