This was an appeal in cassation from the judgment of the Rouen Court of Appeal, 20 September 2012. During the unloading operations of the vessel CMA CGM Ivanhoe carried out by the Société Générale de Manutention Portuaire (GMP) on behalf of Hyundai Merchant Marine (Hyundai), two empty containers were found to be damaged at the exit of the port terminal. Hyundai sued GMP for damages. GMP invoked limitation of liability.

The Court of Appeal ordered GMP to pay Hyundai the principal sums of EUR 4,200.38 and EUR 13,054.19 and EUR 667.80 for ancillary costs. The Court held that limitation of liability was not available to GMP. GMP appealed.

Held: Cassation.

Having regard to arts 28 and 54 of Law n° 66-420 of 18 June 1966 on charter and maritime transport contracts, now arts L 5422-13 and L 5422-23 of the Transport Code, read with art 4.5.a of the Hague-Visby Rules, the responsibility of the carrier is limited, and that of the handling contractor may in no case exceed the same limits. It follows that the limitation of liability is applicable to other losses and damages when they are attributable to the handling contractor.

The judgment held that the limitation of the carrier's liability of which the port handling company avails itself, in derogating from the common law of liability, must be strictly applied, and cannot be extended to vehicles and equipment used for the transport of goods, such as containers. These are excluded from its scope by definition in that they do not constitute goods.

By ruling thus, while the limitation of liability of the port handling company applies to damage caused to containers, the Court of Appeal violated the aforementioned provisions. For these reasons, the judgment rendered on 20 September 2012 between the parties by the Rouen Court of Appeal is struck down and annulled in its entirety, the case and parties are returned to the position where they were before the aforementioned judgment, and the case is remitted to the Court of Appeal of Rouen to be decided correctly.