to order or consigned to B/L

[MIA19]

Hi,
A credit requires a BL to be consigned to the order of Bank A. The BL presented shows the consignee as follows:
Consignee (to order of)
Bank A
Is this a discrepancy?

I would say it is a discrepany because BL is not issued in negotiable form. Usually you see on BL in brackets (unless consigned to order). The presented BL is not clear as far to negotiability. So how would carrier surrender goods, with or without presentation of BL?
Any comments?
thanks
regards
Snježana

[shahriar]

whether the consignee needs to present the original bill of lading for releasing the cargo is not a issue related to negotiablity.

as far as this Bill of lading is concern, i would consider it as negotiable.

other comments appreciated

[ofei]

ISBP681 para101: "If a credit requires a bill of lading to show that the goods are consigned to a named party, e.g.,“consigned to Bank X” (a“straight”billoflading), rather than “to order” or“to order of Bank X“, the bill of lading must not contain words such as “to order”or“toorderof” that precede the name of that named party, whether typed or pre-printed.Likewise,if ac redit requires the goods to be consigned “to order” or“toorderof” a named party, the bill ofl ading must not show that the goods are consigned straight to the named party."

From the above, the BL already shows in "consignee box" to read"to order of",I would think this complies with LC. It also constitutes a transferable BL.

It should be noted a BL is better taken as "transferable" rather than "negotiable" document.

[berry]

It should be noted a BL is better taken as "transferable" rather than "negotiable" document.

hi ofei

could u please discuss the reason in detail?

[ofei]

Hi, berry,
Usually, instruments like bill of exchange are deemed negotiable documents.

But unlike a negotiable instrument, such as a bill of exchange, the new holder’s rights in the bill of lading cannot be protected if there are flaws in obtaining it. The new holder of BL can have no better rights than the previous holder. Therefore, a bill of lading is at best regarded as a “transferable document” (also called a “quasi-negotiable instrument” (though, in my view, the term “transferable document” is preferable).

I hope this helpfu.

Ofei

[nesarul]

dear ofei,
There are some other factor associated with bill of lading except better title issue such as: port due, demarage charges etc. Does your replacing term "transferable" on quasi negotiable cover it. The concept of quasi negotiable has been going on internationally with the law from the inception period of emergence of bill of lading, hence it is well recognized. Is the word "transferable" replace it in modern era¿
Nesar
Nesar

[ofei]

Dear Nesar,
The discusssion here is in relation to whether a BL can be transfered. Hence, if the BL is made out to order or to order of xxx, then it can.
Another issue we are talking about here is concerned with which kind of nature of transfer does a BL belong to. Usually there are the following ways to transfer:
1. Negotiation
2.transfer
3.assignment

The above usually involves the issue whether the new holder of a document can obtain better rights than his previous endorsers.

That's what I can covered so far. As to other issues you mentioned, port due, demarage charges, for example,sorry, I don't think they sense in this respect.

Regards

Ofei