4.1 Introduction
How important is it to decide whether A, who, in one way or another, is involved in the carriage of cargo from the port of loading to the port of destination, is a “sub-carrier”? If A is not considered to be a sub-carrier, he will then in most instances fall within the group of persons (entities) for whom the carrier has vicarious liability (A is “a servant”). In that event, the rules appear to be the same regarding liability for the cargo, see MC Section 282 paragraph three:
“The provisions relating to the carrier’s defences and the limits of the carrier’s liability apply correspondingly if the claim is brought against anyone for whom the carrier is responsible, and that person shows that he or she acted in the performance of his or her duties in the service or to fulfil the assignment.”
In this section 4, the elements of the sub-carrier definition, being: “the person who, pursuant to an assignment by the carrier, performs the carriage or part of it”, will be discussed in 4.2 to 4.6 of this section, and are followed by an attempt to draw some conclusions, in particular regarding the necessity of distinguishing a sub-carrier from a “servant” (section 4.7). The questions concerning forum require some final remarks in section 5.