This was an appeal in cassation from the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, 12 February 2009. Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (Yang Ming) transported a container containing cartons of frozen frog legs from Surabaya (Indonesia) to Fos-sur-Mer (France) on the San Pedro Bridge. On 27 June 2004, the container was unloaded by the handling contractor Seayard on Yang Ming's instructions. The container was placed in a 'dry' container park without the electricity connected. On 19 July 2004, when Seayard delivered the goods to Sofrimar, they were discovered to have been damaged because of the rise in temperature.

The Court of Appeal ordered Seayard to pay Yang Ming EUR 34,550.80 for the damage suffered by the goods, and EUR 28,055 for costs incurred. Seayard appealed, arguing that the stevedore could not know the nature of the goods in the container.

Held: Partial cassation.

A stevedoring contractor is presumed to have received the goods as declared by the depositor and is liable for damage suffered by the goods, unless it arises from facts constituting an event not attributable to the contractor. The Court held that Seayard could carry out a very cursory examination of the reefer container, which was connected on its arrival at the port of disembarkation, and which displayed the internal temperature outside. The report on handing over the container mentioned that it was a 4532 type container, ie a temperature-controlled reefer container. In the light of these statements and assessments, the Court of Appeal was able to decide that the handling company had failed to demonstrate facts likely to constitute an exoneration from liability.

However, having regard to arts 28 and 54 of Law n° 66-420 of 18 June 1966 on maritime charter and transport contracts, read together with art 4.5.a of the Hague-Visby Rules and SDR Protocol, the liability of the carrier is limited for loss or damage suffered by the goods. The liability of the handling contractor may in no case exceed the same limit. It follows that the limitation of liability is applicable to other losses and damages attributable to the stevedoring contractor.

By ruling that the handling contractor was liable beyond this limit, the Court of Appeal violated the above provisions. Its judgment is therefore struck down and annulled, but only in that it confirmed the judgment which had ordered Seayard to pay Yang Ming EUR 34,550.80 for the damage suffered by the goods, and EUR 28,055 for costs incurred. On this point, the case and the parties are returned to the position they were in before the judgment and the case is referred to the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, otherwise constituted, to be decided correctly.