QUESTION 9 - Transportation of Goods

Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd, an Australian company, arranged to sell 10,000 sixpacks of Pure Blonde Lager beer to Molson Coors Brewing Company, a US company, for US $30,000. Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd agreed to ship the beer "CIF Los Angeles (Incoterms 2020)" on the MV Minnow.

Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd then contacted Oceanic Lines, the German firm that owned the MV Minnow, to find out how the six-packs should be packaged and to determine the freight charge. Oceanic Lines instructed Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd to put the sixpacks in standard 2 x 2 x 4 metre shipping containers. It also told Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd that it charged by shipping container and weight no matter what the contents of the shipping container might be. Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd accordingly secured the six-packs in two standard shipping containers and then weighed them. The weight, including the tare weight for the containers was 27 tonnes. Oceanic Lines then drafted the bill of lading indicating that the shipping containers each contained '12.5 tonnes of beer packed in cardboard six-pack packages'. Later, once the MV Minnow had reached Los Angeles as the containers were being moved around on the deck of the MV Minnow in Los Angeles harbour to ready them for off-loading, the ship's crew accidentally dropped them over the side. They were completely lost. Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd now sues Oceanic Lines and the MV Minnow in a US court for the full amount of its loss. Oceanic Lines and the MV Minnow have answered in their defence that the US Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1936 which makes the Hague Rules apply in the US limits their liability to only US $500 per container, or, in this case, to US $1,000. Is Carlton & Universal Beverages Pty Ltd the correct party to sue Oceanic Lines and are Oceanic Lines and the MV Minnow correct in their legal position?