The Article provides a comprehensive overview for the practitioner who handles marine cargo cases. The author provides the procedural framework for the cargo case, including identification of the parties, the proper forum, the governing law, and the cargo claimant's prima facie case. Finally, the author outlines the carrier's defenses in such an action, both procedural and substantive, including a detailed analysis if the unit limitation considerations. The Article examines various methods employed in contracts to allocate liabilities between the contracting parties.
Special attention is given to insuring contractual indemnity obligations.
Next, the Article explores the implications of unqualifiedly naming the indemnitee as an additional assured on an insurance policy. The Article concludes by calling into question the fairness of indemnity and insurance procurement clauses on the basis of economic overreaching. The Article details the logistics of removing an admiralty suit in various contexts, focusing on various situations of original jurisdiction removal, such as admiralty jurisdiction and diversity of citizenship. Also examined are the removal considerations where the original jurisdiction is premised upon a statute such as Death on the High Seas Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, or the Jones Act. Finally, the Article concludes with an examination of the issues surrounding the remand of the case, including the requisite pleadings, the possibility of waiver, and appeal and mandamus issues.