## Facts

- Monica Textile Corporation shipped cotton fabric from Africa to the United States aboard the vessel *The Tana* under a carrier-issued bill of lading.
- The shipment was one 20-foot container packed by the shipper with 76 bales of cotton fabric.
- The bill of lading described the cargo by enumerating the internal units (76 bales) and also included a standard clause stating that, for COGSA limitation purposes, the container would be treated as a single “package.”
- The cargo was damaged during carriage (including water damage) and became commercially unusable.
- The carrier conceded liability for the damage but asserted that damages were capped at $500 because the container was the single COGSA “package.”
- Monica Textile contended that each bale was a COGSA “package,” making the limitation $500 per bale.

## Issues

1. For COGSA’s $500-per-package limitation, when a bill of lading enumerates 76 bales within a container but also contains boilerplate deeming the container the “package,” is the “package” the container or the individual bales?

## Decision

- The Second Circuit reversed the district court’s limitation ruling.
- The court held that the 76 bales, not the container, were the COGSA “packages.”
- The case was remanded for recalculation of damages using 76 packages at $500 per package (absent a declared higher value).

## Legal Principles

- Under COGSA § 4(5), carrier liability is limited to $500 per “package” unless a higher value is declared and higher freight is paid.
- When a bill of lading specifically enumerates discrete units packed within a container (and those units are identifiable shipping units prepared by the shipper), those units are treated as the COGSA “packages.”
- A carrier’s boilerplate “container-as-package” clause cannot override a bill of lading’s specific description indicating multiple internal packages; conflicting or ambiguous form language is construed against the carrier.
- A container is generally treated as a conveyance for shipment rather than the “package” when the bill of lading discloses the number of packages inside.

## Conclusion

The court held that, because the bill of lading listed 76 bales, COGSA’s $500 limitation applied per bale rather than per container, and boilerplate attempting to define the container as the sole package did not control.


Monica Textile Corp. v. The Tana, 952 F.2d 636 (2d Cir. 1991)