Legal
Caught in the middle: Court rules on a carrier facing rival claims
The Commercial Court has provided clarity and a useful precedent in a ruling on a carrier facing rival claims for delivery under English law BIFA is grateful to law firm Holman
W hen two or more parties are in a dispute as to who is entitled to a cargo under a bill of lading, the carrier often fi nds itself caught in the middle, exposed to a potential mis-delivery claim should it deliver to one party over another. English law has long recognised that carriers should not be forced to referee underlying sales disputes, but what should a carrier do when rival claims are made? In Kama Metal Trading LLC v Maersk , the Commercial Court held that a carrier can (if the relevant conditions are satisfied) take advantage of CPR Part 86 and make a stakeholder application, asking the court for directions as to which party the cargo should be delivered without liability to the non-receiving party. This is the first instance of a carrier using the stakeholder
procedure under CPR Part 86 in a bill of lading dispute concerning competing claims to the cargo. The decision offers a welcome route to carriers faced with competing and inconsistent claims. Kama Metal Trading LLC v Maersk & Others [2026] EWHC On 1 November 2025, Maersk issued a bill of lading in respect of three containers. The cargo was shipped on board a Maersk vessel on 29 September 2025 at Mombasa, Kenya, for discharge at Penang, Malaysia. The claimant, Kama Metal Trading LLC, was the named consignee under the bill of lading. Discharge took place on 1 November 2025, the same day the bill of lading was issued. 940 (Comm) Background
Fenwick Willan for permission to reproduce this article.
The claimant, being the holder of the bill of lading, would ordinarily be entitled to seek delivery up of the cargo upon presentation of the original bills, subject to competing claims or other circumstances that may give rise to a carrier seeking the court’s directions. In this case, the named shipper asserted that it retained an interest in the cargo,
16 | August 2026
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