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A bill of lading is a document that certifies the contract of carriage of goods by sea and that the goods have been received or loaded by the carrier and that the carrier undertakes to deliver the goods according to it. Because only by the bill of lading to extract the goods, so in international trade, especially in the FOB, CFR conditions, the bill of lading has important significance, is considered to be the representative and symbol of the goods.
However, because a bill of lading can only be issued one set of bills of lading, and the bill of lading is also transferable documents, so once the bill of lading is lost, it has a great impact on the development of foreign trade business, may lead to the seller can not settle foreign exchange, the buyer can not pick up the goods. With the continuous growth of China's import and export trade, this kind of loss has been happening in foreign trade companies recently.
What should I do if the bill of lading is lost?
General bill of lading lost in the following cases:
1. Lost under exporter's control.
2. The documents are lost in the issuing bank after the exporter delivers them to the issuing bank.
3. The documents are lost after the issuing bank submits them to the express company.
4. Lost after delivery by Courier company to negotiation bank.
5. Lost after the negotiation bank delivers to the consignee.
In cases 1 and 5, the exporter and the importer shall be solely responsible;
In cases 2 and 4, the issuing or negotiating bank shall be responsible;
The problem is that the loss often occurs in the third case, and under the postal regulations currently in force, the postal service has only very limited liability.
According to InCOterms 2000, under CIF, CFR and FOB conditions, the seller must provide the shipping documents to the buyer at his own cost and without delay. It follows from this that the risk of loss of documents should generally be borne by the seller.
In order to ensure its own rights and interests, the carrier requires the consignee to guarantee delivery of the goods without the original bill of lading, and requires the bank to provide guarantee.
The loss of the bill of lading in different cases, the responsibility of each side is also different, but this is later, after the bill of lading is lost, the following measures should first be solved to reduce the possibility of risk.
1. Timely notify the relevant shipping company and its agent. In such cases, the shipping company and its freight forwarder have a duty of care and can no longer release the goods solely on the basis that the bill of lading holder holds the original bill of lading, but should require the shipper to provide sufficient evidence to prove that it has obtained the bill of lading in good faith. For example, is the endorsement continuous? Does it meet the requirements? Was fair consideration paid? The carrier may also release the liability for the goods by depositing the goods under the bill of lading through legal procedures.
2. Apply to the court for public notice in time. One can ensure that the rights under the bill of lading are not infringed; Second, it can solve the problem of long-term hysteresis of margin. Because once the court decides to accept the public notice, the transfer of rights in the instrument during that period is invalid. The legal cost of the public notice procedure is lower, the attorney's fee is also lower, and the expiration of the notice (generally 60 days) can apply for the court to make a judgment.
3, in general, the loss of documents should not affect the port, because the consignee has the obligation to receive the goods and cannot refuse to discharge on the basis of it; The carrier also cannot refuse to discharge the cargo on the grounds that the consignee does not have the original bill of lading, although it has the right to refuse to release the goods.
4. What responsibility should postal express companies bear? The current regulations give them almost immunity from liability; Whether the loss can be passed on by taking out postal express risk insurance, it seems that insurance companies do not carry out such insurance at present.
5, the bank issued a letter of guarantee as long as the wording of the letter of guarantee is specific and comprehensive, there is generally no risk. Involving large guarantees, it is best to ask legal counsel to check, because there are indeed many precedents of invalid bank guarantees in practice.
If the bill of lading is lost after the shipper's settlement of foreign exchange, the ownership of the goods has been transferred to the bona fide bill of lading holder, so there is generally no need to re-issue the bill of lading, the carrier's obligation is to deliver the goods to the bona fide bill of lading holder.
According to different circumstances should also be treated differently:
Under a registered bill of lading: The carrier may deliver the goods to the consignee of a registered bill of lading upon receipt of a company guarantee from the consignee and a written guarantee from the consignor agreeing to deliver the goods to the consignee.
Under the order Bill of Lading: If the agent at the port of discharge receives the consignee's request that the bill of lading cannot be taken up against this bill of lading due to the loss of the bill of lading, he shall require the Consignee to produce the original/duplicate copy of the bill of lading issued by the original carrier, commercial invoice, commercial contract and packing list and other documents to check whether the consignee is the consignee. At the same time, the agent of the port of discharge shall require the consignee to provide a form guarantee issued by a first-class bank in accordance with certain standards. At the same time, the agent of the port of discharge shall ask the agent of the port of loading to contact the consignor on the bill of lading to obtain a written guarantee that the consignor agrees to release the goods to the consignee under such circumstances.
Under bearer Bill of Lading: Refer to instruction bill of Lading for specific practices. The guarantee can be returned to the consignee if the full set of original bills of lading is returned. If the consignee is unable to return the full set of original bills of lading, the guarantee will in principle be retained indefinitely. If the consignee makes a return request, the agent at the port of discharge shall reserve a minimum period in accordance with the law of the country in which it is located. The domestic port proposal needs to be retained for six years. In any case, immediately contact the shipping company to take control of the goods after the bill of lading is lost. In this way, the loss can be reduced, and at the same time, the rights and interests of the receiving and shipping parties will not be damaged.
Shipping documents are lost in the express, often resulting in the consignee can not take up the goods with the original bill of lading at the port of destination, in practice, it is generally by the consignee to take up the goods with a copy of the bill of lading; Or by the carrier to sign a new set of bills of lading delivery and foreign exchange settlement, or authorized by the exporter carrier telex release; However, in the above three cases, the carrier usually requires the cargo to provide a reliable warranty;
At present, shipping companies often require exporters to jointly provide guarantees with their bank, and the guarantee period is one year, three years, six years. The guarantee issued by the bank generally requires the exporter to pay a deposit, if the amount is huge, the huge amount of money will be pressed for three to six years, which will produce great pressure on the exporter; If the bill of lading is obtained in good faith by a third party, the exporter will face the end of both money and goods.
