Cargo Claims — the Liability Architecture of the Code
In international practice cargo liability is known through the Hague and Hague-Visby Rules — non-Georgian regimes; in Georgia a cargo dispute rests on the Maritime Code's own architecture, and the fight turns on the allocation of proof: Article 156 presumes the carrier at fault — with a closed exoneration list; Article 157 keeps the historic nautical-fault defence, outside cabotage; Article 158 ties the proof of shortage to seals and packaging; Article 159 fixes the measure of damages; and Article 164 gives the carrier its counter-claims.
The Presumed Fault and the Exoneration List — Article 156
The carrier is liable for the loss, shortage or damage of cargo received on board, unless it proves that the loss was caused by circumstances independent of it. The exoneration list is closed: force majeure; perils and accidents of the seas and other navigable waters; fire without the carrier's fault; the rescue of life, ship or cargo, or attempted rescue; an order of the authorities or their action — arrest, detention, quarantine; war, terrorist acts, civil disturbance; the shipper's or consignee's negligence; the inherent vice or natural shrinkage of the cargo within the established norms; latent defects of packaging; insufficient or indistinct marking; strikes or other circumstances that stopped or limited work.
Liability attaches from the moment the cargo is received for carriage and is shed at the moment of delivery. The validity rule is decisive: a contract of carriage by sea that does not conform to this article's rules is void — except an agreement on liability for the period before loading onto the ship and after discharge up to delivery. The Code thus restricts attempts to contract out of cargo liability.
Nautical Fault — Article 157
For the loss, shortage, damage or spoilage of cargo — save cargo carried by cabotage — the carrier is not liable if it proves that the harm occurred during the navigation or management of the ship through the negligence or other act of the master, other crew members or the pilot: this is the historic nautical-fault defence. But where the act of the same persons during loading, stowage, carriage, discharge or delivery caused the harm, the carrier answers — commercial fault creates no exemption.