On 15 November 2017, ELITE (the “freight forwarder”) instructed CMA CGM (the “sea carrier”) to transport certain liquid chemicals (the “cargo”) belonging to EXXONMOBIL (the “shipper”) from the port of Le Havre to the port of Alexandria. The sea carrier instructed Société Générale de Manutention Portuaire (the “stevedore”) to load the cargo on board the vessel APL Merlion (the “vessel”).

With a view to transporting the cargo, the sea carrier provided the stevedore with an empty container. The stevedore placed the cargo in a plastic tanker called a flexitank, which was then loaded inside the container. During vessel loading operations carried out by the stevedore, the container struck the vessel, perforating the container base. The cargo spilled through the perforated base and spread over the vessel and onto the dock (the “incident”). The sea carrier compensated the shipper for the loss of the cargo up to an amount of €48,532, corresponding to the statutory limit of liability applicable to 
the sea carrier.

By a writ of 14 September 2018, the sea carrier initiated legal proceedings against the stevedore before the Commercial Court of Le Havre claiming reimbursement of €48,532 for the cargo loss (the “claim for cargo loss”) together with additional costs in an amount of €2,612. The additional costs claimed were for costs of container repair and cleaning, storage, demurrage and vessel cleaning (the “claim for additional costs”). In response, the stevedore challenged the claim for additional costs, arguing that these costs were included within the statutory limit of liability applicable to it, as provided for in Arts L.5422-13 and L.5422-23 of the French Transport Code. By these statutory provisions, the limit of liability applicable to a stevedore are dovetailed with the limitation provisions in the Brussels Convention of 1924 as amended by the 1968 and 1979 protocols (the “Hague-Visby Rules”) applicable to a sea carrier.2