Burns Philp and Company Limited v West Australian Steam Navigation Company Limited [1923] HCA 55

33 C.L.R.] OF AUSTRALIA

{HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.)

BURNS PHILP & COMPANY LIMITED . . APPELLANT ;

PLAINTIFF, AND THE WEST AUSTRALIAN STEAM NAVI- | GATION COMPANY LIMITED AND / Responpents.

DEFENDANTS,

ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

Bill of Lading—Contract—Goods shipped under deck—Transhipment of goods— Dangerous cargo—Goods placed on deck—Condition of transhipment— On deck at shipper' risk" —Fire on ship—Goods jettisoned—Liability of shipowners.

Certain wax matches consigned to Western Australia were shipped under deck: at London on ship A, whose destination was, to the knowledge of the shippers, the port of Singapore. Pursuant toliberty contained in the bill of lading the goods were transhipped at Singapore to ship B for carriage to Fremantle—ship B receiving them subject to a stipulation that they were to be stowed "on deck at shipper's risk," which was a usual stipulation for carriage of dangerous goods such as wax matches between Singapore and Fremantle. The matches were necessarily jettisoned between those ports because of a fire on board, and the indorsee of the bill of lading claimed damages for the loss from the owners of both ships.

'The bill of lading contained (inter alia) the following stipulations :—' 'Tran- shipment of cargo for ports where the ship does not call, or for shipowners' pur- poses, to be at the risk of the owners of the goods from the time goods leave the ship's deck, where ship's responsibility shall cease. . . . Goods forwarded by steamship or otherwise for shipment or after transhipment to be subject to the conditions and exceptions of the forwarding conveyance, and at the risk of the owners of the goods. . . . This bill of lading shall constitute the contract between the owners of the goods and the shipowners; it shall be construed and governed by English law, and shall apply throughout the transit but always subject to the conditions and exceptions of the carrying convey- ance,"