PAGES per Charter-Party "-Demurrage at Port of Delivery-The words "Other Conditions as per Charter-Party "-The meaning of the expression "Without Prejudice to the Charter-Party "-Right of Vendor to stop in transitu-Parting with the Bill of Lading when CHAPTER VII.-Period during which a Bill of Lading remains in Force-Two Symbols of Property in Goods imported-As soon as Delivery is made or Warrant for Delivery has been Issued-Ship- owner and Payment of Freight-Consequences of Fraud-Where one Bill of Lading is in Possession of Wharfinger-Parting with Symbol of Property, parting with the Property itself-Conclusion. AN EPITOME OF THE LAW RELATING TO CHARTER-PARTIES AND BILLS OF LADING. PART I. THE LAW RELATING TO CHARTER-PARTIES. CHAPTER I. Lord Tenterden's definition of a Charter-Party-What is included in a Charter-Party Agreement-How Bill of Lading differs from Charter-Party-The words "the Captain to sign Bills of Lading as presented" in Charter-Party-Section 169 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854 (as amended by Section 143 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894)—Person managing Ship on behalf of himself and another PersonProceedings in rem where Vessel clearly guilty of damage-Liability of Ship and responsibility of Owners' Convertible Terms-Unless Charter-Party has interfered with general control of Ship, Owners clearly liable-Case of Christie v. Lewis. LORD TENTERDEN, in the fifth edition of Abbott on Shipping, at page 163, in speaking of a charterparty, says: "The term 'charter-party' is generally understood to be a corruption of the Latin words carta partita, the two parts of this and other instruments being usually written in former times on one piece of parchment, which was afterwards divided by a straight line cut through some word or figure so that one part should fit and tally with the other as evidence of the original agreement and correspondence, and to prevent the fraudulent substitution of a fictitious instrument for the real deed of the parties. With the same design, indentation was afterwards introduced, and deeds of more than one part thereby acquired among English lawyers the name of indenture. This practice of division, however, has long been disused, and that of indentation is a mere form." The charter-party agreement is one by which the owner of a ship or other vessel lets the whole or a part of her to a merchant or other person for the carriage of goods, on a particular voyage, in consideration of the payment called "freight". A bill of lading differs from a charter-party in that it is required and given for a single article (¿.e., parcel), or more laden on board a ship that has sundry merchandise shipped for sundry accounts, whereas a charter-party is a contract for a whole ship. If the words "the captain to sign bills of lading as presented" are used in a charter-party, they convey not only an authority to the master, but impose an obligation upon him to grant or sign bills of lading in whatever form and to whatever effect he might be required by any person to sign them. Where there is a hiring of the ship with the intention that the charterer shall employ the ship as a general ship for his own profit, when the master signs bills of lading he does so as the agent of the charterer, not of the owner. However, the owner being in possession of the ship by his master and crew, he has rights in respect of this possession as to claim a lien on goods on board for freight due to him; and he is liable for the acts and negligence of the master as master, irrespective of the contracts entered into by the master with the shippers of goods, as agent for the charterer. To use other words, the owner, although the ship be so chartered, is clearly liable for a collision arising from the improper management of the ship, and for what the master does within the scope of his genera, authority as master, which cannot be ascribed to his agency for the charterer. Under section 169 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854 (17 & 18 Vic., cap. 104), as amended by section 143 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 (57 & 58 Vic., cap. 60), it is provided that the wife of any seaman, in whose favour an allotment note of part of his wages is made, may recover by summary procedure the sum allotted, with costs, from the owner or any agent who has authorised the drawing of the note. The object of the section is to enable a seaman, when about to leave home on a voyage, to make provision for his wife during his temporary absence; and the mode by which this is done is by enabling him to set apart in the hands of his employer a portion of the wages which he is earning on board, and to give his wife the power of receiving them. In a case decided in the year 1876 M. was the registered owner of a ship called the Sydney Hall, and entered into a charter-party with H., by which he demised the ship to him for a stated period, and parted with all control over it. H. took possession of the ship, and appointed a master who |