ment of the act of releasing of goods without B/L
Whether the carrier’s act of releasing of goods without B/L has completed or not, we should take into consideration whether the goods has been delivered in law, namely the act that the carrier shows taking delivery order to consignee. And the behavior of consignee in the process of taking delivery has no effect to the releasing of goods without B/L by carrier.
(b). The causality and typical model of releasing of goods without B/L
I.The carrier delivers goods to the third party subject to the consignee named in B/L in addition to letter of guarantee when the goods arrive at the port of destination.
II.Because of the development of recent navigation seamanship, fast shipping but short voyage, in addition to the documents’ slow negotiation, the carrier releases of goods to the consignee without original B/L in order to cut down expenses of port and set about a new voyage. While the consignee may have no original B/L because of follow reasons:
a.In condition of L/C, because of the discrepancy in the documents, the bank refuses to pay. And the documents have not been returned to the seller, the seller doesn’t exercise the right of stoppage in transit.
b.The consignee is incapacity of redemption of documents by paying the bank.
c.The usage of taking delivery without original B/L has formed between carrier and consignee because of long-term business transactions.
III.The carrier colludes with the person who takes delivery without B/L to fraud the holder of original B/L.
(c). The demur of releasing of goods without B/L
In reality, the situation relating to the releasing of goods without B/L is very complicated. Sometimes, there’s the fact of releasing of goods without B/L, however, some specific affairs can demur its irregularity. These years, the shipowners presented many reasons to demur the liability in lawsuits. There’re different opinions between the theoretical and practical circles. Now, I will analyze several typical reasons.
I. The holder of B/L brings a lawsuit surpassing the prescription. Once there were intense controversies about the prescription of releasing of goods without B/L. Now, the unanimous opinion about it is one year.
II. The law of the place for delivery or the customary practice demands of delivery goods even if without original B/L.[8]
III. Once the consignee doesn’t receive B/L because of its missing, being stealed, extinction or any finance reasons, if he could prove that he is just the assignee of B/L, and could give a satisfactory explanation about the direction in which original B/L has gone, the carrier has right to deliver goods to him. But it is necessary to take delivery with guarantee after the summon exhortation by publication.[9]
V. The holder of B/L knows deliberately the carrier’s act of releasing of goods without B/L. But still provides assistance to take delivery or provides some other convenience or has come to a payment agreement with the buyer. This is just the equitable theory —— estoppel.
Meanwhile, the academic and practical circles have presented some other demurring reasons recently. But it’s worthy of inquiring into whether all the advocations could be tenable.
I. The carrier releases of goods in accordance with the directive of the director named in the B/L: In some people’s opinion, the carrier has performed the liability of delivering goods properly in accordance with law, so he should not be subject to the responsibility of releasing of goods without B/L.[10] But actually it’s based on a premise that the indicator is the lawful holder of the B/L when directing. Even so, the carrier should be subject to the responsibility to the bona fide holder of original B/L.
II. Releasing of goods without B/L under the circumstance of straight B/L: one view is that, the nature of straight B/L as “title of document” has altered. The person subject to the consignee will not take delivery without original B/L, while the consignee named in the B/L can do it without B/L.[11] The same reason as above if the bearer B/L and order B/L has been named by endorsement and has been promised not to be assigned any more, the consignee can also take delivery without original B/L.
The other view is that, there is no mandatory provision in the 《Maritime Law of PRC》 that the carrier must deliver goods to the holder of straight original B/L, so he shouldn’t undertake the responsibility for releasing of goods without named B/L.[12]
Actually, all the views above are partial. In my view, although the
straight B/L can not be assigned, it is still the title of document and basis of releasing of goods. Merely, it is effective to the person named in B/L. Moreover, in according to provision 78 of 《Maritime Law of PRC》 “The relationship between the carrier, consignee and the holder of B/L with respect to their rights and obligations shall be defined by the clause of B/L”. So only if the consignee dominated in straight B/L is the lawful holder of B/L, the contract of carriage by sea between the carrier and consignee could be tenable. In addition, from the judgment of “LaiWu Aidi biochemistry Limited company V HaiCheng BangDa international agent of ship and goods Ltd company”[13], we can draw the conclusion that if the consignee of named B/L has not pay the issuing bank to redeem of documents, the carrier’s act of releasing of goods without B/L will jeopardize the interest of the shipper. Therefore, the view above that the named B/L could be the defense against the responsibility of releasing of goods without B/L is not tenable.
III. The limitation of period of responsibility as the defense: The period of responsibility of the damage or loss of goods in 《Hague Rules》is “hackle to hackle” or “rail to rail”.

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