Unclean Bill of Lading/ Claused bill of lading/ Foul bill of lading/ Dirty Bill of Lading

Unclean Bill of Lading/ Claused Bill of Lading/ Foul Bill of Lading/ Dirty Bill of Lading - 

You would have heard any of these terms during your career in handling sea shipments. 

Are Claused bill of lading, Foul Bill of lading, Dirty bill bill of lading and unclean bill of lading same? 

• What is the meaning of Dirty bill of lading? 
• How does Foul bill of lading work? 
• How to explain claused bill of lading? 
• What does unclean bill of lading mean?

Let me state first of all: The term Foul Bill of lading,claused bill of lading, dirty bill of lading and unclean bill of lading are same.

Now let us discuss, how does Unclean Bill of lading, Claused bill of lading, foul bill of lading or Dirty bill of lading work?

If owner of ship or his agent does not agree with one or more of the statements mentioned in the bill of lading, he add the said clause or clauses on the bill of lading. This bill of lading is called unclean bill of lading, claused bill of lading or foul bill of lading.

For example, the vessel owner or his agent mentions on the BL as “two cartons missing”. This remarks is mentioned in bill of lading. Means, the shipper declares 55 cartons, but the carrier or his agent mentions ‘two cartons missing’. This means, the carrier’s responsibility is to deliver only 53 cartons.

Let us discuss another example – If a bill of lading shows “unprotected machinery”. This means, the carrier accepted goods with a remark of ‘unprotected machinery’ and he has no responsibility on unsafe package of goods he received. If any loss under any damage due to this poor package is on account of shipper only.

Some times carrier may issue bill of lading with a remark of “damaged crates” . When handing over cargo to the carrier by shipper, the carrier would have noticed such damage and he does not take responsibility on such damage and mention a clause on bill of lading – ‘damaged crates’.

So a bill of lading with clause or clauses as explained below are called Dirty bill of lading, claused bill of lading, unclean bill of lading or foul bill of lading.

Does Unclean bill of lading, Dirty bill of lading, claused bill of lading or Foul bill of lading accept by bank for Letter of Credit Negotiation?

Answer is ‘No’. If a bill of lading reflects clauses, such bill of lading does not accept by bank for Letter of credit negotiation or discounting.